Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge
by Kiue Jin
Summary: Murdered and cast aside by those who he lived to protect, a third party has other plans for the Blond haired Shinobi. Vote being taken on possible couplings. Evil Naruto   Depends on point of view.
1. Chapter One: Betrayal

**AN: Ever since reading Shinobi of the Ebon Blade (CaptainPrice) and Transient Guest are We ( 1sniperwolf) I have had this idea running around in my skull for a while now and in order to see if it is a good idea or not I'm going to have to put it down on paper and let everyone else judge for themselves. This also marks my first attempt at a crossover. The time period is set after the time skip while the world is a mixture of both Naruto and Warcraft worlds. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Warcraft. They are the property of people far more skilled then myself (and as a side effect, richer then me too). I write this because I wanted to have fun, waste a little time and hopefully get some god damn reviews. While I'm glad you like my stories and add them to the alert list, I need reviews to make me feel good about myself. **

Death Knight: **We speak like this.**

Lich: _**We speak like this, mortal.**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge. **

**Chapter One: Betrayal.**

_Why was this happening? Wasn't I good enough? Wasn't I loyal enough?_

Weakly, Naruto tried to raise his head high enough to look at the blood covered pieces of metal that were poking out of his chest. Despite the fact that his own blood was coating the blades in a sickening fashion, he could make out the dried blood of those who had suffered this fate before him. Every time he saw the bloodstained metal he tried to reach for it in a vain attempt to force the blades out, but his body wouldn't respond.

He couldn't feel anything below his neck. He was pretty sure one of the blades had gone through his spine. The one plus sign to this was that he couldn't feel the pain that the three well sharpened weapons was no doubt causing him. Sadly, instead of pain he just felt...cold. Freezing cold. He really wanted to shiver or at least make some attempt at warming himself up but he just couldn't do it no matter how much he tried.

He was dying.

Truthfully, he had never really thought about his own death before. Even with the threat of Akatsuki coming after him he had been more worried about Konoha and everyone he had come to care about then himself.

Thinking about those he cared about, he wondered if they were safe right now. Sakura, Kiba and Shino had broken off from the group a few miles back in order to stop one of the enemy vanguard conveys from attacking a town that was miles away from here.. He wondered if they were still alright? The idea that they were suffering a fate like his own, to be stabbed in the back by the people who were meant to be allies, scared him greatly.

_If they had been here, maybe things would have been different?_

As his vision started to black out and the cold numbness started to crawl up and lay claim to the rest of his body, Naruto thought he overheard someone nearby say something about 'Burning the bodies'... He suspected he might have been hearing voices. He couldn't even hear his own heart beat anymore. While a part of him was.. well, angry that these bastards were going to get away with this, another part of him just wanted the coldness to stop.

As his time on earth drew to a end, Naruto's last thoughts drifted to someone who's appearance in his minds eye caught him somewhat off guard. The image of a teenage girl with somewhat creamy pale skin, black hair that almost seemed blue and eyes that gave the impression of blindness flashed before his minds eye. The image confused him a little. Not because he didn't know who it was, but more with why he was seeing her just before he died.

_Hinata... I'm sorry but... I don't really know that much about you... I kind of wished I got to know you before now... I have a feeling I missed out on something wonderful...  
><em>

With deep regret, Naruto looked up at the sky with his eyes wide open as his life reached its end.

Naruto Uzumaki was dead.

...

_**One hour earlier: Northern edge of the Forests of Konoha**_

No one knew where the plague started exactly. By the time Konoha had been called in to investigate the matter most of the towns, villages and cities throughout Northern Fire County had been infected by it. People were dying in mass. But that wasn't the worst of it.

The worst part about all these people dying was the fact that they didn't stay dead.

Many of the undead horde were little more then mindless zombies, only dangerous because they attacked in mass, swarming the living. Your average genin team was more then able to deal with such groups of creatures, clearing them out of areas being considered a low C ranked mission. However, after the first few days reports started coming in of different creatures within the undead horde.

Things like walking skeletons and creatures that had been given the title of 'Ghoul' for the ghoulish appearance started to make appearances among the undead tides. The skeletons were slightly harder to kill the the normal zombies, but it was the fact that they had been confirmed wielding basic weapons such as swords, knives, spears and even bows successfully that drew attention to them. There was even a rumor of some using basic fire jutsu, but such a thing had yet to be confirmed.

The Ghouls however were slightly more worrying then the lesser undead and it wasn't just because of their freakish looks and horrible smell. They tended to be much harder to kill, could inflict a surprising amount of damage when they managed to get a hit in, could tunnel through the earth with scary determination (They did this with neither skill nor ease, but they still managed to do it) and worst of all, they were reportedly able to _think_.

While the heart of all their plans seemed to be nothing more advanced then 'Swarm them', unlike their mindless brothers and sisters in arms they could pick out and target threats during battle. They had even been known to set up simple ambushes and guide the rest of the horde to try and aid them in battle.

But it was the most recent of rumors that had caught the attention of Konoha and thus why a four man team of three chuunin and one genin were currently heading north.

"Sakura-chan, why exactly are we checking this farm out anyway? Wouldn't our skills be better suited elsewhere?" Naruto whined, annoyed that he had been called away from not only a potential bowl of free ramen, but also from being the center of positive attention.

Since the outbreak had began, Naruto had proven himself to be one of Konoha's best zombie killers. His usage of shadow clones and his near limitless energy allowed him to purge whole regions filled with zombies or stopping whole raids of the undead by himself, a fact that was starting to earn him a great deal of respect in Konoha.

Sakura sighed as she answered " Naruto, I've already gone though this with you. After examining the remains of some those who have fallen victim to this plague of undeath, it's become clear that it was manufactured by someone. After examining the contents of the stomachs of some of the older victims, we discovered traces of a plant that is rare in Fire Country. The only place it is found here is at the farm we are heading too. Combined with the fact that it is near where the outbreaks began and this seems like the best place to start looking for whatever started this whole mess."

"I get that, but I want to know why it's us having to do it. Aren't there better units for this sort of thing?"

Before Sakura had a chance to lose her temper, Shino spoke first in his emotionless, coldly logical voice. " Naruto, the reason we are doing this is because the evidence suggests that someone created this virus and might possibly be controlling the undead creatures it creates. We are here to track this man down and deal with him as we see fit."

"So... We're here to find and kill the big zombie boss man?"

There was silence for a few seconds before Shino answered, sweat dropping as he did so " That...is one of putting it, yes."

"Sweet! If someone was willing to pay for a bowl of ramen just because I was dealing with the worthless mook, imagine what I'll get for the boss man's head! Maybe someone will pay for an all you can eat meal!"

Sakura and Kiba almost face-planted into the ground at the announcement while Shino maintained his cold logical front. Sure Naruto had grown over the years he had been away, but some things never changed.

...

_**Twenty Minutes Earlier.**_

Kiba raised his hand into the air in a fist, stopping the team at a seemingly random branch. Sakura was the first to asked "What is it?"

" Looks like a raid of the undead bastards just went through here. A really big one too. Since it appears to have come from the direction we are going, it's a good bet that the farm's emptied out of defenders. Do we know what's to the east of here?"

While only two members of the team were trained tracking ninja, the tracks left by the undead host were hard to miss. It had almost made a makeshift road due to the sheer number marching in it that came from the north then turned east. Looking closer, Shino stated "It appears that a wagon may have passed through here too. Wither or not it came with the undead, I can't tell."

"There is a town east of here. It has a town wall so it's better defended then your normal town, but against these sorts of numbers I doubt they would hold out for long" Sakura supplied, not liking the decision that was quickly raising up to meet them.

"So, do we keep going or deal with this new threat?" Kiba asked, getting it out in the open.

There was silence for a few seconds before Naruto spoke up.

"You three stop the raiding party. I'll keep going to the farm."

Kiba and Sakura were shocked by the statement while Shino appeared to think about what Naruto had suggested.

"Naruto, stop being a baka. You don't honestly think we would let you go off alone. I don't care if you want to be viewed as a hero back home, such pointless heroics are just going to get you killed." Sakura began.

"Yeah moron. Pack mates don't split up for no good reason." Kiba added, Akamaru barking his agreement.

"I dislike it, but it seems to be the most logical arrangement." Shino stated, drawing the shock of Sakura and Kiba while getting Naruto's nod of approval.

"What do you mean the most logical arrangement?" Sakura demanded, shock quickly turning to anger.

" If the undead horde is being controlled by a central figure, then the sooner we can remove them the better. The removal of the leader would, in theory, return the undead to an uncoordinated mindless state. However, the horde would still need to be dealt with to ensure that it is no longer a threat. Out of all of us, Naruto is the best suited to face a horde on his own due to his abilities and his experience in this field of combat. While he could easily go in either direction, since we can guess the size of the force heading for the town he would be better suited to face the unknown defenses at the farm. He would also be highly motivated to get the job done as quickly as possible since finishing his task would aid us greatly." Shino explained.

After the silence that ruled the four of them for almost a minute, Sakura grudgingly gave her consent for the plan. "Naruto, I swear to Kami if you get yourself killed..."

"You will bring me back to life just so you can kill me again. I'll meet up with you as soon as I'm done at the farm." Naruto finished, darting off north before another word could be said.

As the rest of the team went east, Sakura feared that she would never see Naruto again. Kiba on the other hand feared that they might, but under less friendly circumstances. One of them was wiser then the other.

...

_**Ten Minutes Earlier. **_

Standing on a tree overlooking the farm, Naruto could tell that there had been a lot of activity had happened here in the past few hours. The makeshift road from which he had split up from everyone else had lead him right to the farm they were heading for. The place seemed deserted. Not just in an 'It's been deserted for a long time' way either. More of an 'Everyone left in a rush ten minutes ago' kind of thing.

However, just as he was about to leave the tree to have a closer look something left a storage shed that was disconnected from the house. It looked like a heavily armed and armored human from a distance, but some gut feeling told him that there was more to this man then met the eye.

Waiting until the man had entered the farm house itself, Naruto leapt from the tree he had been perched in a darted across the open ground, quietly climbing up the farm house wall and sliding in as silently as he could through an open window a little bit of distance away from the front door.

It was only the clink of armor that gave Naruto the split second warning to duck, saving himself from decapitation as a sword that was almost two thirds his size flew over his head, only to have the side of his face meet the metal covered knee that followed the sword strike. The sheer force of the impact threw Naruto across the room and thought a rotten wooden wall before sliding to a stop on the stone floor in the next barren room.

Getting back to his feet, Naruto shook his head a little to clear away the dizziness before grabbing his jaw and pushing it back into place with a slight wince. Turning towards the wall he had just been put through, Naruto was surprised to see that the armored man hadn't moved at all. Despite the helmet that covered everything but a pair of unnatural glowing blue eyes, the blond could almost physically feel the sense of amusement that the man was giving off.

" **So you are the blond haired nitwit that has been causing the fodder so much trouble? I always knew those ghouls were worthless but to be beaten by such a poor assassin just proves how correct I was."**

The man's voice seemed to echo off itself, supporting the unnatural feeling surrounding the man. But there was something about the way that the man carried himself that annoyed Naruto greatly. He had seen it before back in Konoha years ago, normally from the Hyuuga clan but anyone who was richer or better connected then everyone else did it too. That sense that they believed themselves to be better then everyone else really pissed him off.

" I take it you are the bastard who caused all this meaningless death to take place. Just who the hell are you so I know what name to put on your gravestone, you murdering piece of shit!" Naruto growled, his hands already twitching to go for a weapon of some kind.

The armored man merely laughed at the threat, making Naruto slightly angrier at the arrogance that man was showing by not even considering him a threat.

"**You honestly believe that a low born piece of trash like you could kill someone like me? Oh that is rich. But I guess I should educate you a little before your passing. I am Baron Bloodbane, Death Knight and trusted servant of the one true King of the world. I have been sent to be the vanguard of his Will here in your pathetic excuse of a land. But do not worry foolish one, you will enjoy serving the masters bidding soon enough." **

Finally too angry to stop himself anymore, Naruto grabbed the first two kunai he could get his hands on and threw them right at the self proclaimed Baron. The twin kunai simply bounced off of Bloodbane's armor without even marking the metal.

The Baron laughed at the feeble attempt at an attack, mockingly taunting the blond haired little bastard "**Is that the best you have to offer me little worm? I guess I will have to show you a real attack then!" **Holding his large sword over his shoulder with one hand, the Baron pointed his free hand towards the blond.

Before Naruto knew what had hit him, a purple claw that seemed to be made completely of something like chaka had appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him tightly around his chest. Before he even had the chance to try and free himself he was suddenly pulled off the ground and sent flying towards Bloodbane, who swung his sword to meet him just as he got in range. Naruto's upper and lower halves were separated by the strike. The surprise on Naruto's face lasted for a moment before both halves exploded into a cloud of white smoke.

Bloodbane was caught off guard by the turn of events, even going as far as mutter "**What the.." **before a loud, high pitched screeching sound from behind him caught his attention. Turning around in time to hear a cry of "**Wind Release: Rasengan**!" Bloodbane barely had time to widen his eyes in horror as what could only be called a bright light with four sharp points slammed into his chest, sending him flying through a nearby wooden wall and into the outside world before he was engulfed in a burning bright light.

Gripping his right forearm tightly at the burning sensation soaring tearing through his right arm, Naruto couldn't help but smile at himself as he watched his attack expand and engulf the bastard who called himself a Baron, or whatever the hell he claimed to be. While some might have called such a measure over the top, his memories from his clone suggested otherwise. In this case, it was better to take him down as quickly as he possibly could and that was the only attack he could think of that had the raw power needed to pierce the man's strange but powerful armor.

As his attack started to die down, Naruto started to walk carefully over to the crater that had been left behind in order to peer down at what should have been a man who was fit for a death bed. The fact that Bloodbane was standing up scared the crap out of him to say the least, although it was easy to see that damage had been done. All over the Baron's armor was cracked horribly and a few pieces of his chest plate was missing. His right arm dangled dead at his side and his left leg didn't seem able to support any weight on it.

As the man raised his left arm and pointed it towards him, Naruto felt something grip his throat tightly, cutting the air off completely. Grabbing at his own throat in an attempt to get rid of whatever was choking him, all he found was his own skin and air.

Rationally thinking that all it was just a genjutsu, Naruto seized the first kunai he got his left hand on and stabbed it into his right arm. Other then causing himself a lot of pain, he was still being choked to death by something he couldn't see or touch. Panicking now, Naruto threw the kunai at the man, hoping to break whatever attack he was using. He didn't even notice the tag wrapped around the handle until it was in the air.

Flying true, the kunai stuck into the weak point at the joint that connected the Baron's armor at the left shoulder, piecing the metal and flesh. With a slight wince as acknowledgement of the damage he had suffered, Bloodbane ignored the pathetic attempt at a counter attack, only to puzzle a moment later when it felt like his shoulder was burning.

**BOOM**

As the tag went off, Bloodbane's left arm was disconnected from his body, hitting the ground at the same time that Naruto dropped to his knees. With whatever the attack had been stopped at the source, Naruto had found himself able to breath again. Falling to his knees out of breath, the blond quickly lost his balance and fell into the crater, rolling down while getting what little wind he had left in him knocked out of him as well as gaining a few cracked rips.

Rolling to a stop as he reached the bottom, Naruto started coughing in a fit of pain, blood and the need to get fresh air into his lungs. When the coughing subsided after a few moments, Naruto laid there for just a few seconds. It was when he heard the scraping of metal across stone that he forced himself to sit back up, eyes widening in horror at the sight coming towards him.

The Baron was not only back on his feet, but very slowly dragging himself over to where Naruto lay. The man's left arm was missing completely and laying somewhere on the ground behind him while his seemingly dead right arm was dragging the massive weapon along the ground.

Despite the nightmarish amount of pain he most have no doubt been in, all Naruto saw was pure engaged murder in the man's eyes.

"**You...You will pay for this indignity against me! I will make you suffer an eternity of torment and it will STILL not be enough! I will hunt down everyone you've ever loved or cared about and make you watch as they twist and scream in pain for your crimes, you low born piece of fucking FILTH!"**

Despite the injuries that seemed to cripple his form, the man still raised his weapon with a frightening amount of speed. Diving to the side to avoid the strike, Naruto's eyes bulged in shock as a large fissure opened up in the ground starting from where the blow began. Not getting time to think about capitalizing, the freakishly large sword almost broke the sound barrier as the weapon was pulled from the ground in an upwards slash.

The blond was barely able to jump backwards fast enough to dodge the bulk of the strike but he didn't get away completely unharmed. There was a long, thankfully shallow cut starting just above his right hip and ending level to his left elbow. Wincing slightly to the pain, Naruto was forced to duck as the blade came around for a third strike, this time trying to take his head off at the neck.

Almost sensing the weak spot that had been exposed due to Bloodbane extending his attack too far, Naruto leased out a kick towards the side of man's right knee with all the force he could muster. Connecting with bone shattering force, Naruto felt the bone give way to his attack. With the bones in his right knee broken and unable to support any weight on his left one Bloodbane's legs gave out underneath him, causing the leader of the undead in Fire County to fall onto his back heavily, screaming and swearing vengeance at the 'low born scum' all the way.

Clearly breathless, injured and in pain, Naruto was almost willing to wait a few moments before planning his next course of action before an idea suddenly entered his head. Almost in a trace like state, Naruto reached into his kunai holder one last time and grabbed hold of his very last one. Also seizing hold of his final explosive paper tag, it was just a small matter of work to wrap the tag around the blade tightly.

Standing up, Naruto forced himself to walk towards the still screaming Baron, who was trying to claw his way over to the sword he had dropped when he had fallen by his almost completely dead remaining arm. Stopping by the man's head, Naruto almost felt like he was watching himself act as he jammed his weapon into the man's left eye, causing him to scream in pain loudly. These screams only got worse as the tag caught fire inside of his skull. Making the attempt to jump back, Naruto's injuries clearly prevented him from getting far enough away to escape injury...

**BOOM**

...Yet, somehow he did?

Landing on his feet with only the slightly wince of pain coursing through his body, Naruto looked back at what should have been nothing more then smoking wreckage and charred bone only to stare as it appeared that the man's head was still somehow _there_.

Looking at it closer however, Naruto noticed the plume of smoke that was coming out of the cracks and gaps in the helmet. Taking a few steps closer, he could smell the burned human remains that had once been the Baron's head. The helmet itself had not only survived but had completely contained the blast, trapping it on the inside.

_What the hell is that stuff made from?_

Looking at the now definitely deceased body of Baron Bloodbane, which was a rather stupid name now that he thought of it, Naruto was about to start thinking about heading off and meeting up with the rest of his team when he suddenly felt...cold. Finding himself unable to move his body below his neck, Naruto looked down and spotted three rather sharp looking pieces of blood covered metal sticking out of his chest in different areas.

Already finding it impossible to move or breath, Naruto couldn't stop himself from falling onto his back when a slight breeze that made its way into the crater pushed him backwards. It was only then, as he laid there at the bottom of a crater he had created laying next to a man that he had killed, did Naruto see the two men at the top of the crater... two men wearing the headbands of Konoha...

...

In the end, nothing mattered but the continued domination of Konoha over the rest of the shinobi world.

It was the creed that all those who served Root lived and died by. They were the most loyal and most obedient of all servants of Konoha, as all tools should be. They neither questioned nor discarded their orders, succumbed to their emotions or even thought of betraying their village.

They had sacrificed everything they owned, their own emotions and even their names in order to serve their homeland, as all loyal tools should. But today was special. Today was the day that would mark Konoha's rebirth as a world power.

Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Konoha, student of the Toad Sage, unofficial son of the Forth Hokage and container of the nine tailed demon fox. By all accounts he was almost as loyal to Konoha as any member of Root was, a rare feat for a non member. But in the end he was still a tool of Konoha and Lord Danzo had wisely judged that he would be able to serve his village better dead then alive.

While it was standard for Root members to rid themselves of such silly things as Want or Regret, both men still felt a small but weird sense of longing to inform the now dead jinchuuriki that he hadn't just been discarded just like any tool that had outlived its usefulness. That his death would be what forced Konoha to become more militant , to rally those who would normally object to such a thing to the cause. That Konoha would truly become great once more without the pathetic teachings of the Third weakening it anymore.

They didn't though, for they were trained better then that.

Silently jumping into the crater, they went about doing their secondary objective: Recovery.

While they wouldn't be able to take the bodies of either Naruto or this so called 'Baron' back to Konoha in order to ensure that they were found by more legally acknowledged sources, they would be more then able to salvage certain items of interest. Namely, some pieces of the 'Baron's' armor and his weapon. Having witnesses the attacks that the armor had gone through, the fact that it was still mostly intact was surprising to say the least while the weapon hadn't even suffered any damage despite undergoing the same treatment.

One of the two went to pick up the sword while the other went to work on removing the dead man's helmet.

Just as the helmet man placed his hands on the bottom of the piece of armor, planning to remove it with ease, the suddenly clanging of metal on the ground caught his attention. Turning his head towards his partner, he was almost surprised to find a block of ice completely encasing his fellow Root member completely, the sword having slipped from its grasp when the ice that made up the block had overtaken the nameless man's hands.

Suddenly turning towards the top of the crater with a kunai in his hand, the last thing he saw was a creature that seemed to be made of bone dressed in a rich looking purple robe of unknown design as a ball of blue entered his chest, freezing his heart and the blood running too and from it in his veins, killing him instantly.

...

Back in his days amongst the living, Amal'thazad had always known that life sometimes gave you lemons. The fact that all life seemed to have for him was lemons had been what had lamentably driven him to the arts of Necromancy and the Scourge in the first place.

Sadly, even undeath had its hidden little pains in the ass and the one that bothered him the most was one Baron Orbaz Bloodbane, loyal servant of the Lich King and all around jackass. When the new land had been discovered the King had wisely decided to send in a small scouting force in order to get an idea of what was waiting for them there, as well as enough plague in order to raise an army if need be. Out of all the Lich's that had tried to get their metaphorical foot in the door with this opportunity, Amal'thazad was thrilled when he was selected for the task of gathering information.

Much to his misfortune, Bloodbane was selected to be in charge of security.

This was a problem because, once they had arrived and set themselves up in an abandoned farm in the middle of nowhere, it became apparent that Bloodbane's idea of 'defense' was to take the offensive. Stealing the samples of the plague they had brought with them without telling him, Bloodbane unleashed it on a number of towns and villages, mostly raising zombies, skeletons and a couple of hundred or so ghouls.

To make things worse, the man couldn't lead the army he had created out of a wet paper bag. He was as incompetent as he was arrogant and for a Death Knight or anyone who served the King of the Frozen Throne, incompetence was a crime that wasn't forgiven. Thankfully for himself, Amal'thazad had made sure that he would not share the Death Knight's fate when their master discovered his many blunders.

It had taken much effort, but the Lich had been able to recruit a dozen or so members of the local population to the Cult of the Damned, giving him at least a small spy network to use. And what information he received! Within the first few days he had learned so much of these 'Elemental Nations' and he knew he had only touched the surface.

But his most important discovery was the reason why Bloodbane's stupid attempts at taking the land through force had failed: The Shinobi.

They were better fighters then most Warriors, capable of feats of stealth greater then any mere Rogue, could heal injuries and illnesses as well if not better then a Priest, could twist creation and the elements like a Shaman or Mage and according to some rumors some of them could summon and control powerful demons better then any Warlock could dream of. Most amazing of all was the fact that any single one of them could do all of this! And those were only fringe benefits for joining the club.

He had tried to get some test subjects or the remains of Shinobi in order to discover just why they could do all these things, but once again Bloodbane failed to deliver. Oh sure, he was able to give him a corpse every once in a while but they were normally the low ranked acolytes called 'Genin' and thanks to Bloodbane and his horde there normally wasn't enough left intact to discover anything at all.

But things had suddenly turned for the better. Suddenly, he had three nearly perfectly intact bodies of Shinobi that were clearly higher grade stuff then mere Genin and one of them had even KILLED Bloodbane! It was a joyous day! If he had still have legs he might have danced he was so happy. But he didn't and he had an audience of ghouls and the few Cult of the Damned members he had been able to enlighten... He might just do a twirl later, when no one was looking.

"Lord Amal'thazad, what do you wish us to do with the bodies of the shinobi and former Baron Bloodbane?" the current head of his little branch of the cult asked respectfully, as was proper.

"_**Gather the remains of the shinobi and the fool together. We will be taking them back to Northrend with us. Afterwards, destroy all evidence that we were even here to begin with."**_

" Why are we taking back the remains of Bloodbane? Hasn't his constant failures earned him the punishment of final death?"

_**" The fool's parts might still be useful for the Lich King's designs, even if only to return Bloodbane from the grave long enough so he might have the pleasure of putting the fool there himself. Besides, his armor is far too useful to simply throw away. Another Death Knight will need armaments after all."**_

" Of course Lord Amal'thazad. But are you sure you wish to go to the effort of repairing such a damaged suit of armor? At this point it might be easier to just melt it down and forge a whole new set."

_**"What are you talking about? The armor shouldn't be..." **_Making a closer examination of the fallen Bloodbane's armor, Amal'thazad was honestly surprised by the fact that it had been damaged at all, let alone so badly. Each piece seemed to have dozen of large cracks running through it while chunks of the metal in the right arm, left leg and chest plate were completely missing, adding even more cracks in what remained. **_"That... is interesting."_**

Interesting didn't even cover half of what the Lich was feeling right now. It was no secret that Bloodbane's armor had been made almost completely from Saronite, a dark and twisted metal that was infamous for being next to impossible to damage, let alone destroy. When he had seen the fool's dead body he had assumed (quite correctly) that the blond had taken advantage of the gaps in the armor where the metal didn't cover, like the connection between the joints or the eye holes to land the death blow.

He had ensured that this happened when he..._suggested_ to the blond that the best course of action was to finish the death knight off. He was that worn from the battle he didn't notice that the idea wasn't his own.

But to be able to damage Saronite armor like this... it was unheard of. Many had tried to do such a thing before but this was the first time he had ever seen or heard of anyone _succeeding_.

The lich turned his attention back to the Blond haired boy who had not only been a thorn in the side of Bloodbane's plans, but had also ended the arrogant fools life. The boy was powerful, that was certain. Not as powerful as the fool had been though; Despite his flaws when it came down to leading others into battle, Bloodbane was a rather high ranked member of the Scourge for a reason. If he had taken his battle with the blond seriously from the start, the boy would not have lasted long against the onslaught that the death knight could've unleashed for long.

But the dice had already been cast... and there was much potential here...

"Your orders Lord Amal'thazad?"

_**"Gather the remains of the fallen and prepare them for the trip through the portal to Icecrown. The two unknown shinobi are to be handed over to the research and development department. Bloodbane and the blond are to be presented to the Lich King himself. Take extra care of both of them. Anyone who fails in such a simple task will feel the full extent of my wrath. Once we are ready to leave, all remaining evidence we were even here is to be destroyed. Understood?"**_

"Yes Lord Amal'thazad. We will get on it right away."

With a low bow, the leader of the cultists started to shout orders to the other cultists, getting the mob running about to perform the tasks given of them.

Amal'thazad simply continued to examine the remains of the blond shinobi who had freed him from the fool of a death knight he had been forced to listen too. While his cultists heard his voice when he spoke, he was speaking only to himself, his powers over the arcane and his experience with the dark arts of necromancy giving him a rare gift of foresight.

_**"From this defeat, will come many victories."**_

...

_**Three hours later.**_

When Sakura, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru arrived at the farm that had been there target from the beginning, they were scared of what they might find. Naruto had promised to join up with them once he was finished here and he never came. Either he had broken his promise or something had gone really wrong.

When all they found at the farm was burning rubble and a large crater in the ground, they all somehow knew it was the latter. There was no body. Not Naruto's, not a zombies... it was just... empty.

"Kiba, can you smell Naruto anywhere?" Sakura was clearly trying to keep the fear out of her voice, but she was quickly failing in her task.

Kiba sniffed the air and sighed in a defeated manner. "There's nothing here. It's as if someone completely purged all the possible scents that were here. All I can smell is us, smoke and ash."

"Shino, please tell me that you planted one of your bugs on him!" Sakura demanded, but the underling pleading tone in her voice was easy to hear.

Shino was silent for a few seconds as he listened to his hive before pushing his glasses up, his eyebrows pointed downwards. The hive buzzed loudly for a few seconds before returning to a barely heard buzz. "While I planted a female on Naruto, I am afraid that none of my males are able to pick up her scent. This could either mean that she is dead or something happened to prevent them from smelling her. If it is the latter, I will admit that I have never heard of something strong enough to block out the scent of a female kikaichū before."

Sakura was clearly starting to freak out at the news. Naruto was missing and suddenly there is no way to track him down! This happened far too professionally to have been the undead rotting bodies they had been killing for the last week or so.

Trying to calm Sakura down, it was surprisingly Kiba who said "Look, I know it looks bad. But maybe if go a little distance away from the farm and sniff around we might be able to catch his scent? Maybe the guys who did this forgot to cover their tracks completely?" it was a pathetic hope, but it was all they currently had. It did calm Sakura down a little though. "What are we waiting for? Naruto needs our help!"

They searched for a solid four hours, trying to catch a single whiff of either Naruto of Shino's missing female kikaichū over a solid four miles away from the farm. All they found was the overpowering smell of rotten flesh.

In silence, they turned back to Konoha defeated. They didn't say a word to each other on the way back, but the silence was broken every now and then by a sob from Sakura.

Naruto was gone.

**AN: This is now officially my longest single submission ever. It is also my first attack at a battle scene (In this case, Naruto verses Orbaz Bloodbane). I will confess, I wasn't planning on using Bloodbane at first. I was going to use a completely OC Death Knight but whenever I thought of the word Arrogant Bloodbane kept popping into my mind. I hope it turned out well. **

**I also tried to keep things as realistic as possible, such as the strength of Saronite.  
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**If you are reading this and would like me to continue, I currently have a poll set up on my profile that I would like you to use. This would be considered 'Other Projects'. **

**Please review it. I cannot stress this enough. Without your input I won't know if this was any good or not. So if you like it, tell me and everyone who is on the fence about reading this story so by leaving a positive review. **

**I am currently debating just what I want Naruto to become. While a Death Knight is the clear cut answer, there are other things in the Scourge army that the blond could be shaped into as well, along with the 'Experimental' creations made all the time. Suggestions?**

**Other then that, thank you for taking the time to read all twelve pages of this. **

**Goodnight everybody! **


	2. Chapter Two: Dark Rebirth

_**AN: Due to the surprisingly positive reaction to chapter one, I've decided to continue one with this for a while to see where it goes. I will be starting a new poll on my profile as well and there will be more details on that in the Authors note at the end. **_

_**I would also like to take the time to give a shout out to CaptainPrice, DemonFallenAngel, Jormun and narutofan020 for taking the time out of their day (Or night) to review what I have written. I highly recommend that you read their stories (If they have posted any). **_

_**Disclaimer: Since the creators/ owners of Naruto and Warcraft are still alive, I currently don't own either of them. However, all I need to do is get lucky once and the rights are up for grabs!* Smiles evilly. ***_

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

Lich King: _**"I speak, you listen or suffer foolish mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge.**

**Chapter Two: Dark Rebirth.**

_The first birth celebrates life. The second birth mocks it. _

_But what exactly is being mocked? Life begins and as time passes the baby becomes an infant, the infant becomes a child, the child becomes an adult, the adult becomes an elder and then life comes to an end. It is a cycle of growth and decay that ends when the rate of decay is faster then the rate of growth. _

_Once life ends, the being that has just died ceases to be. Sure many claim that the righteous pass into heaven and the wicked burn in hell, but Who exactly is passing the judgements and by what standards are Just and Wicked held too? _

_If a man stole from a greedy rich noble and gave the money he stole to those who truly needed it, would he be considered wicked for theft for stealing the ill gotten gains of a tyrant?_

_If a soldier was to drag a poor, defenseless man out of his home and away from his family, hurting him in the process before throwing him in a rat infested prison cell to rot for an unknown number of months, maybe even years just because that poor man couldn't avoid to pay an overpriced tax, would that make the soldier Just for performing his duty to his corrupt lord?_

_Instead of risking your soul, your very being to the unknown, there is another option. _

_The second birth, to raise from the grave as an immortal, to break free of the cycle of life and death altogether. Why risk your soul to the judgement of an unknown, often fickle god when you can ensure that it will be safe forever while remaining on this plane of existence forever as an immortal._

_Death comes for everyone, but it need not be the end. _

_~First page of the Cult of the Damned recruitment booklet.~_

…_..._

**Unknown Location**

Naruto gasped in a lungful of air, the shock running through his system clear to see to anyone who witnessed the act as he sat up, his eyes as wide open as his mouth as he looked around in a blind panic.

He felt...weird. It was as if he wanted to throw up, cough up his lungs, tear out and eat someone's heart and praise the world around him for considering him fortunate enough to be granted this second chance.

As images started to bombard his mind without context, Naruto quickly recognized the last thing he had seen. Looking down at his chest, the metal blades that had been there, had ended his life, were long gone. He did notice a few new changes though. His skin was a _lot _paler then he last remembered it being and the glowing blue ruins that appeared tattooed on his chest, arms and legs were rather new too... He was also missing a shirt, pants... he was completely naked.

_Alright, what do you remember? I...I think my name was Naruto. Yeah, that sounds right. I think... I think I died. But wait... If I'm dead, where am I?_

Looking away from his own body in order to get a better understanding of where he currently was, the newly awakened Naruto felt his eyes widen at the sight around him. He appeared to be in the middle of some sort of large arena. At first glance there wasn't any exits so the blond turned his attention to the arena floor itself.

He was surrounded on all sides by piles of snow, the bones and meat of what he could only guess were things that had been in the arena before him and didn't win their battles and discarded weapons of all shapes and sizes. Looking up at the sky, all he could see was the blackest of storm clouds, blocking all light from either the moon or the sun.

Looking around the arena once more, Naruto took notice of the snow again. Giving the ground a stomp without even looking at it, it was easy to tell that it was dirt that had been frozen so hard that it was like one of the harder rocks.

_Hang on. It looks like I've been here for a while, completely naked and exposed to the elements. Taking into account the snow and the extent that the ground is frozen and it should be more then cold enough for me to have frozen to death long ago... or at least be freezing cold. Then why aren't I?_

Instead of suffering from the freezing, hellish cold that was tearing into everything else, Naruto felt... comfortable. Not warm by any means, but not cold either. It was quite...pleasant. After the freezing cold that had taken him in his final moments, this wasn't half bad.

Before he could think on the matter any further, something exploded out of the ground ten feet to his left. As the snow and dust settled around it, Naruto saw the rotting flesh of the humanoid arm as it stuck its bone claws into the rock, dragging the rest of its ghoulish form out of the rock hard ground with it.

A memory flashed through Naruto's mind at the sight of the creature, showing many more of these 'Ghouls' trying to attack him...to kill him... but he killed them instead. Killed them by the hundreds some battles.

Around him, more rotting fists burst from the ground, clear signs that reinforcements were coming to back up the ghoul that had already crawled out of it's grave.

_**Kill. Them. All.**_

Naruto did not know where the voice in his head came from, who or what it belonged too and honestly, he didn't care. He reacted to the order without even questioning it, reaching down and grabbing hold of the nearest weapon he could find, a worn looking short bladed katana.

Leaping towards the unprepared undead ghoul like only a shinobi could, Naruto gave a loud yell as a war cry before bringing the sword down and slicing the creature in half, one of it's legs still buried in the ground before turning to the next nearest target. He didn't notice that his voice was deeper and had an echo like element too it... or that his eyes glowed an unnatural blue.

All he knew was that for the first time that he could remember (Which wasn't a whole lot at the moment) Naruto truly felt alive.

…...

**Konoha, the funeral service of Naruto Uzumaki. **

_He should never have gone off alone. I should demote Sakura and the other two morons for letting him go without invoking violence to make him stay with the team._

It had been two days after Naruto had vanished on a mission (and a great many search teams being sent out to try and find some trace of him) when a frog messenger arrived from the self proclaimed super pervert himself. After getting word that his student had vanished completely without a trace, the first thing that Jiraiya had done was check the summoning scroll he often carried around on his person at all times.

Naruto's name had been crossed out in blood, a sign that he was dead.

It hadn't made any sense to Tsunade when she had first read the message then and even now, as she stood silently looking at the picture of the smiling blond that was placed on an empty wooden box, she still didn't fully understand what had happened. She was still numb from the shock that the blond baka was gone.

When Naruto's death and funeral had been announced, much of Konoha had been saddened by the loss of happiness and energy that the blond had brought to Konoha. There were some die hard bigots however that had _**dared **_to be pleased by the news of the genin's demise. Few made their happiness known publicly however. Those that did suddenly found their lives in Konoha very difficult indeed.

_I think... I think he would have been happy that so many people turned up from his funeral._

Most of Konoha had shown for the service, far more then the hokage had expected. She had almost been worried that she was going to have a make a second, _mandatory _service just to make sure that Konoha would give one of its best and brightest the send off that they deserved. But many had come.

Almost everyone who's lives Naruto had touched positively over the years had come to Konoha to attend the service. Those that couldn't be there in person for whatever reason had gone to great lengths (and in some cases, expense) to ensure that flowers were placed on their behalf at the service.

That had been some time ago. Slowly the crowd had broken up in order to return to their everyday lives. Quickly all that remained were the remaining members of the rookie twelve (minus Sasuke and Naruto now), their sensei's and their teacher from the academy, Iruka and Jiraiya. As time passed though one by one they left, till only four had remained.

Minutes ago, that number had become three when Sakura had silently walked away with her head down, her eyes red from crying. Tsunade sadly looked over her at former team mate and nodded to him before turning her attention to the only other person who had stayed. " Hinata, it's time to go."

"...Just a little longer, please."

Tsunade sighed sadly. While the girl was still better off confidence wise then she had been when she was younger (she hadn't started stuttering again yet) the girl was clearly broken over her crushes death. "Hinata, He would honestly hate to see you suffer like this because of his sake. You know this more then anyone."

The teenage heiress nodded stiffly, unable to shed any more tears then she already had. "..Are you sure he is dead? Not just missing?"

It was Jiraiya's turn to sigh sadly, getting the younger woman's attention. " When someone who signs a contract dies, their name automatically gets a line crossed through it. It's an old secret of the many different contact summons that they used to prevent a past summoner from being brought back to life as some undead servant for the purpose of summoning their chosen animals. "

Oddly silent for a few seconds, Hinata took a deep breath before asking "Is there anyway that we could...bring him back if we found him?"

Both Sannin exchanged looks with each other very quickly at the question. This sort of question was almost expected of everyone who had ever lost a loved one. It was always a tempting thought, bringing back those who had passed on. But it was a very dark path and there was a reason jutsu's that performed such an unholy act were forbidden.

Better to stop this now, before the idea gained too much momentum.

"While it _is _possible to reanimate the dead, I warn you now that we would not get Naruto back. All we would have is a mindless killing machine that looked like him, incapable of emotions or caring. In fact, I think we would bring his wrath down on our heads for using such means to return him to the living, since all jutsu that brings the dead back to life demands a death to take place." Jiraiya began, nodding at his big breasted former team mate to continue.

" However, I do agree with you when you say we need to find him. I want to give Konoha's favorite son the burial that he deserves. I don't mind saying it, but just knowing what happened to him would make things... not easier, but at least we would have closer... and someone to take our collective angers out on. Hinata, will you help me find Naruto and get some answers about what happened?" Tsunade asked, maintaining a professional appearance but not hiding the determination in her voice while keeping an eye on the Hyuuga.

Hinata was silent for a long time, staring at the ever smiling picture of the blond boy she had never had the nerve to tell how much she loved him. Now it was too late, but maybe she could at least perform this one final task for her late love. "Yes Lady Hokage. I would be honored to help you find Naruto-kun."

…...

**Unknown location in Icecrown.**

"**Big Ball Rasengan!" **Both Naruto and his clone shouted in an deep, echo affected voice in unison as they slammed said attack into the guts of a creature twice his size that looked like it had been stitched together rather poorly from the remains of several different corpses, given a large chain with a rusty hook and a meat cleaver to use as weapons and smelled like the corpses it was made from were left out to rot in the sun before being used to create this... abomination.

Said monstrosity was sent flying in the air as the larger (and more powerful) version of the Rasengan collided with its guts, the look of surprise on the large but slow brutes face at the fact it had just been made airborne vanished as it smacked into the arena wall and exploded in a shower of black blood, rotten flesh and muscle, bone and what could only be called bile.

As the make shift shower rained down on the arena and to an extent Naruto, said white haired blond wiped some of the grim away from his eyes by scooping up a handful of clean snow and using it as a makeshift towel before admiring the level of carnage he had wrought in the arena while he took the time to catch his breath.

What had once been an empty patch of frozen earth and snow was carpeted by broken bodies, blood and stuff that didn't really have a name but smelled awful none the less. Naruto himself looked like he had gone swimming in a pool of the bodily fluids that had almost completely coated the floor of the arena. The only places not covered were currently his eyes and the hand he had picked up the snow in, since using his bare hands would have only made the mess worse.

He had lost track of just how long he had been fighting since there was no real way of telling time here since day and night looked the same because of the ever lasting cloud cover above him. He had long ago lost track of how many ghouls he had slain here. He didn't really care either. He _had _slain at least a couple dozen or so spider like creatures that had burst out of the ground with the ghouls however and the destruction of the poorly made fat tub of lard and bile marked the third of such creatures he had put down.

Clearly expecting more company to arrive at any given time, Naruto looked down at the arena floor again before swiftly shifting the broken and bleeding remains of a dead ghoul off of a weapon handle, finding a decent looking war axe underneath. As much as he had liked the katana, it had broken after what felt like the eighteenth ghoul, forcing him to replace it with a new sword. When that one broke, the cycled repeated quite a few times.

Checking out the weight and balance of the axe in his hands, Naruto nodded as he felt confident that it would last a couple of waves before breaking like the rest of them. At one stage he had questioned the fact that he knew how to use the weapons he was wielding, since none of the images in his head showed him ever using any of them. He had then proceeded to behead a ghoul with a well aimed spear strike and simply pushed the thought out of his head. He was simply enjoying himself to much using the weapons to care about such a minor details as _how _just yet.

With a great deal of noise, a large portion of what he had believed to be an arena wall started to open up like a large gate. Turning towards it, Naruto got ready for whatever was to come for him now.

…...

_Things hadn't worked out exactly as planned. _

Hidden safely in one of his many Root safe houses in Konoha, Danzo silently contemplated the turn of recent events.

The plan had been quite simple really. Taking advantage of the undead monsters roaming the land, his root agents were meant to find and kill the Kyuubi container Naruto Uzumaki and mutilate his remains so that it looked like the undead had killed him. His violent death would cripple Tsunade's ability to lead, meaning a new and stronger leader would have to take her place. Once he had taken the seat of Hokage, he would then use Naruto's death to convince those he had 'befriended' and allied with in life to rally under the new, more militant administration.

However, that plan was halted when the teenagers earthly remains were never located and were completely gone without a trace, along with his two agents in the field.

While his death was officially announced after it was discovered that the boy's name had been crossed off the frog summons contract when he had died, it didn't have the reaction that seeing his desecrated corpse would have. Tsunade hadn't broken down from the pain of his loss, instead growing stronger from the pain and starting to implement more policies in order to better train Konoha's shinobi for years to come.

He would admit that despite it not going to plan, it had still been a victory for Konoha as a whole which made it a victory in his eyes.

Still, there were too many loose ends that needed to be followed up. Too many unanswered questions.

"Report."

A member of his Root organization appeared out of the shadows of the room, kneeling before his master.

"Despite numerous attempts and using all the techniques at our disposal, we were unable to find any sign of the Kyuubi container or our agents in the field. Despite the background interference of the undead, we were able to confirm half a dozen or so unknown persons walking towards the farm at about the same time as the disappearance. However, they do not leave the farm."

"We also discovered the small patches of ground at the farm appeared to have been frozen or covered in ice at around the estimated time of the vanishes. We have yet to figure out what caused it or why it happened, but for now we are unable to connect it directly to the happenings at the farm."

The report given, Danzo nodded with an emotionless blank face. "Carry on the search for now and try to find some more leads."

"Yes lord Danzo." was all the grunt said, vanishing back into the shadows.

Danzo didn't show it, but he was worried.

_Far to many unanswered questions..._

…...

It wasn't the armor or the weapon that one first noticed about the man who was causally entering the arena, stepping over or stomping on any corpse that got in his way. It was the sheer level of power that he gave off that had Naruto's complete attention. The blond may not have been a sensor in life, but this wasn't so much sensed as forcing itself to be acknowledged. You didn't just feel the power coming off of the man, you could _taste _it. What made it even more terrifying was the fact that he wasn't even trying to show off his power... that what you were feeling was natural for him.

Once you got over the sheer, mind breaking power that was coming off the man, the eye was drawn to the sword he wielded. It was big, made in a design that Naruto had never witnessed before. As he stared at it, he felt like it was trying to pull him towards it...trying to consume him in order to quench a never ending hunger.

Jerking his head away from the blade, Naruto returned his gaze to the man himself, only to hear the voice in his mind that had given him orders before whisper to him once more.

_**Attack him with everything you have.**_

Without another thought, Naruto readied the axe he had picked up and leapt towards the armored man, the war growl coming from his mouth belonging more to an animal then a human as he brought the axe down in an over head strike.

With little effort, the armored man brought his blade up, intercepting the surprisingly fast blond's weapon and shattering the axe before backhanding Naruto with his free hand, sending him flying across the arena with as much ease as swatting a fly.

Hitting the ground hard and rolling over rock hard icy dirt, discarded weapons and broken bodies, Naruto slammed against the arena wall with bone cracking force. Grunting loudly through the pain order to stop himself from screaming in agony, he forced himself back to his feet once more. An image of a scene like the one he had just gone through flashed through his mind, only this time it was a young, beautiful blond woman in her twenties that was striking him. Much like then, he could tell that the armored man was holding back. If he had wanted too, he could have killed him with that backhand strike alone.

_So I'm being tested then... very well then._

Placing his hands in a hand seal that he remembered doing so often that it had burned the memory into his body, Naruto called out **" ****Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" **consuming his half of the arena in smoke. When the smoke began to clear, there were over fifty copies of the blond standing around at different sections of the arena most having picked up one of the many weapons laying on the ground. One of the Naruto's nearest to the armored man yells **"Charge!" **which all the other Naruto's follow as the attack begins anew.

The armored man didn't show any sign of fear of the impending assault, raising his free gauntlet wearing hand and pointing it towards the charging mob. Projectiles of green energy started to fly out of the hand in the dozens, each one taking the shapes of skulls mid flight. Despite the attempts of the clones to close the distance or dodge the attacks, each skull blast found its mark, blowing the clone hit up in a puff of white smoke. After a while, when the half of the arena that the Naruto's had started their attack from was completely blocked out by white smoke, the armored man lowered his gauntlet, waiting for the next move to be made.

He did not have to wait long...

"**Big Ball Rasengan!" **

Two Naruto's seemed to appear out of nowhere from the man's left charging towards him with the bright glowing ball of raw power lighting up the arena as they charged at him. Turning towards them, the man raised his hand once again. The air around the man seemed to ripple as it grew darker and colder around the gauntlet before he mentally pushed the attack forwards.

Unable to dodge the attack, both Naruto's where hit by what could have only been called a pure Arctic wind. Within seconds both versions of Naruto were flash frozen into pure ice sculptures of themselves. With the sudden loss of stability, the larger then normal rasengan that was being maintained by both of them exploded, sending shards of ice flying in all directions as the sculptures were destroyed violently.

It was only after the explosion had died down that the man heard the screeching wailing coming from behind him. **"Wind Release: Rasengan!"**

Turning around with a speed that simply should not have been possible for a man wearing that much armor, Naruto was surprised when all the man did in preparation for the attack was stick his sword into the ground and raise his free hand to cover the gaps in his helmet that allowed him to see the outside world. Jumping back as the attack stuck the armored man, Naruto quickly made as much distance as possible while ignoring the burning pain in his arm.

The elemental powered Rasengan stuck the man's chest plate with all of its fury. However, instead of sending the man flying back all it managed to do was push him along the ground a few meters, causing the rock hard dirt to be torn up as the man's feet dug into it. It then exploded outwards, consuming the man in a bright flash of light.

Losing sight of the man in the brightness, Naruto kept his senses open in case of a sneak attack while he started to rub his right arm. He could still feel the man's power and it wouldn't be too hard to have substituted himself to avoid the attack.

As the bright light caused by his attack faded, Naruto still looked around the arena, trying to find where the man was hiding when a deep, echo like chuckle brought his attention back to where his attack had exploded.

Standing in the center of a shallow crater on a piece of ground that had been shielded by his bulk, the armored man still stood, the gauntlet wearing hand he had used to shield his face lowering as the man chuckled. To Naruto's absolute horror, the man was unharmed. His armor wasn't even scratched!

_That...That was my strongest attack... and it did nothing!... who is this guy?_

" _**I can see how you could have bested a champion like Bloodbane in a one on one battle, Naruto. I am honestly impressed."**_ The man stated with a deep, echoing voice that Naruto recognized instantly.

"**You... You are the one who was whispering in my mind, weren't you?"**

Another amused chuckle sounded from the armored wearing man as he took a few steps forwards and dropped into the shallow crater, walking the few measly steps to his weapon that was still sticking out of the ground at the edge of the hole in the ground, unharmed.

While it sounded like the sort of chuckle that was used by arrogant fools who believe themselves better then everyone else, Naruto could tell the difference between the two. An arrogant fool holds the belief that they are better then everyone else, regardless of whatever evidence comes their way that they weren't. This guy **WAS **better then everyone else, belief had nothing to do with it and the evidence supported the claim.

_**Kneel to your King.**_

Without a single word or thought of protest, Naruto fell to his knees with his head facing the blood covered icy ground. He kept his eyes locked there as he heard the suddenly thunderous foot steps of the god like man approach him.

"_**Naruto Uzumaki, In life you bested the Death Knight **_**_Orbaz Bloodbane, only to be betrayed and cut down by those who claimed to be your allies in your moment of triumph. As reward for your achievement in life, I granted you the opportunity to earn the position that you had opened up by slaying Bloodbane, which you have succeed in accomplishing. From this moment onwards, you will be one of my most feared instruments of destruction, a favored tool to be used against my enemies; A Champion of the Scourge. Raise, my Chosen Knight and embrace immortality."_**

Images ran through Naruto's mind of his last few moments of amongst the living, of the two men wearing headbands with a Leaf printed on it. The symbol of the shinobi of his former home in Konoha. He remembered serving his home, ready to give his life for it if needed... and in the end it had betrayed him.

Raising to his feet, Naruto kept his head bowed as he announced ****"Thank you for giving me this chance to redeem myself, your Majesty."****

The Lich King chuckled once more, a small grin forming on his features, pleased with his latest champion. **_**"Before I give you your first task, there is something you must witness." **_**As his last word faded into memory, the gate is which he had entered opened again, this time letting out a creature that Naruto had never seen before.

It looked like a huge skeleton that was floating on an icy mist, wearing an expensive looking purple robe. In life, it would have scared the ever loving crap out of Naruto but now... he couldn't help but respect the creature. As the skeleton approached, Naruto could feel the power coming off of him. It was nowhere near as powerful as his new lord and master, but it was never to sneeze at either.

As the Lich dropped the body it was carrying at the feet of its master, he bowed deeply. _"You summoned me my King?" _

Looking from the Lich to the body it had brought, Naruto's eyes widened a little. It was was naked as he was without his armor and they had replaced his head with a new one (you could see the stitch work around the neck) but there was no mistaking that missing arm and broken knee anywhere.

**"****_**Amal'thazad, you were tasked with gathering information on the now named 'Elemental Nations' and if possible creating not only a new branch of the Cult of the Damned there, but setting up a foothold there for future Scourge activities. While the mission was for the most part a failure, I have judged that it wasn't you who caused it."**_**

Once more, the Lich Amal'thazad bowed deeply to the lord and master of the Scourge. _"Thank you, your Majesty."_

Seemingly ignoring the lich's thanks as he turned his attention to the remains of Orbaz Bloodbane, the Lich King lifted Frostmourne and pointed it towards the mostly broken carcase. A purple bolt of energy shot out of the blade like a lighting bolt, striking the body and giving it new life as Orbaz suddenly shot up, gasping for air.

Looking around, Bloodbane's eyes landed on Naruto. Anger quickly overcame the Baron. ****" Why you low born piece of fil..."****

**"_**Orbaz Bloodbane you will show respect to your master before you pursue petty grudges in my presence!" **_**The King interrupted, cutting Orbaz off completely.

Naruto watched the already pale face of Orbaz lose color as he suffered what could only be called the greatest 'Oh. Shit' moment he had ever witnessed. As Orbaz quickly worked himself into a kneeling position, their master quickly walked over to him. ****"Master, please forgive me for..."**** before Bloodbane could get any furthered the Lich King's free hand was gripping his throat, cutting off his words physically. With yet another show of strength, Bloodbane was lifted a good two feet into the air by his throat.

**"_**You were tasked with protecting Amal'thazad**_****_** while her gathered information on the new lands and their defenses and instead of performing the task**_****** I ******_**gave you, you stole samples of My plague so you could run off and play War Lord" **_**

**"**Master, I can..."****

**"_**And then you went and messed that up by leading those mortals your granted undeath so poorly that they wouldn't have been able to fight their way out of a wet paper bag under your command" **_**

**"**Your Majesty, I..."****

**"_**And to add insult to injury, you then proceeded to get yourself killed because you disregarded your enemy because they didn't have a noble birth!"**_**

**"_**Sire, Please forgive m..." **_**The words died in Orbaz's mouth as his master swung his blade upwards, hacking off his only remaining arm before dropping him onto the cold ground.

**"_**You've failed me in all of these ways due to your own incompetence and you have the NERVE **_******to beg for ******_**MY forgiveness?"**_** Raising his foot into the air, Naruto watched as his new King brought his armored foot down on Bloodbane's only remaining good knee with a sickening crunch. Naruto even winced at the man he had spent his last moments alive killing screamed in pain.

**"_**I do not tolerate failure or incompetence Bloodbane. You of all people should know this." **_**

The ground around the former Baron exploded upwards and the rotting hands of half a dozen ghouls reached for the sky before returning to the earth to dig the rest of themselves out. Naruto wasn't quite sure what was happening, but when he heard his master's voice more in his head he obeyed it without question.

**_**Watch and learn the price of incompetence, Death Knight.**_**

Once the ghouls were completely free of the icy ground, the God of the Scourge turned away from Bloodbane before announcing**_** "Dispose of this incompetent fool."**_**

Without waiting for another word, the ghouls pounced on the downed Bloodbane, sinking their rotting teeth into his flesh.

**"**Wha... What are you doing? LET ME GO YOU LITTLE... STOP! STOP! STOP CREWING MY LEG! STOP!" ****

Naruto wanted to look away. He wanted to close his eyes, cover his ears and just pretend that he couldn't hear the screams of the man as he was being torn apart and eaten alive. But he couldn't. His master had ordered him to watch and by hell he was going to do it. It taught him a very important lesson... Never. Fail. The King. EVER!

When the screams finally started to fade and Bloodbane returned to the grave (While the ghouls continued with their task joyously), The King started to walk towards the gate he had entered the arena by, seemingly ignoring Naruto, Amal'thazad and the execution he had just ordered.

**" _**Amal'thazad, You are now in charge of Death Knight Naruto Uzumaki until further notice. Do what you feel you need to do, but ensure he doesn't disappoint me."**_**

Said Lich quickly bowed, giving Naruto the chance to notice that the undead creature seemed... unnerved by what they had just seen. He personally didn't blame him.

_It could have been us..._

"_I will do so with joy, your Majesty." _

**"_**See that you do, Lich."**_**

With those words, the Lich King departed, leaving his servants behind in his wake.

Everything was silently in the arena for a few moments after the master had left (With the exception of the ghouls tearing into their meal). Feeling that something needed to be said to break the silence.

**"**What should we do, Amal'thazad- Sensei?"****

Said Lich took pause at the title that the newest Death Knight in the Scourge gave him. While normally he would demand someone under his command to call him something like Lord or Master, his time in the elemental nations had taught him a little of the new recruits culture. 'Sensei' appearance translated to 'Teacher'. It wasn't the most grand of titles, but for some reason it seemed...right. Besides, none of the other Lich's had such a title. It was the sort of thing you could shove down their throats.

"_Hmm... I guess the first thing we should do is go and get you clothed. We can't have one of the masters Death Knights walking around naked after all. It would send the wrong kind of message. After that we will need to go and pay the Research and Development department a visit. Come along, we haven't got all down Death Knight."_

With that, both Lich and Death Knight left the arena, leaving the ghouls to feast in private.

****AN: Once again we have reached the end of a new chapter and once more I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Please remember to leave reviews because they help encourage me to write faster. ****

****That thing about the summoning contract crossing out the summoners name at death to ********prevent them from summoning creatures if they are risen from the death is an original concept. It isn't in the cannon despite the great deal of sense that it makes. It's just another shred of proof that the people writing the cannon Naruto storyline are messing it up. ****

****If any of them are reading this, please don't sue me. I don't make that much money. ****

****I am deciding to open up a contest for my readers. I am going to have Naruto become a Shinobi class Death Knight, which basically translates to an assassin class one. By assassin, I mean the kind who stabs you with a knife while you're sleeping in bed, not the kind who has a fist full of lighting that gives away your position, but if plan A doesn't work the flashy and noisy plan B is an option. ****

****Because of this, Naruto's armor is going to be different then the standard death knight armor. Which is why I want any artists out there to get drawing and come up with a Death Knight Naruto in his new armor. The one I think is the best will become his official set of armor, as well as have the picture appear on my profile. ****

****The winner will be announced at chapter four. You have until then to get your picture into the contest.****

****Other then that, Goodnight everybody!****


	3. Chapter Three: Research and Development

**AN: Before I begin, I feel like I need to clear something up. The timeline of this story would have started shortly after the Hidan and Kakuzu arc had finished (for Naruto) and players would have only started going through the dark portal to Outlands (for Warcraft) respectfully. **

**The construction of the Ebon Hold has only recently been started. It's going to take time to finish. I should also add that Naruto isn't going to just be a cold, dark and uncaring monster. He's going to be a death knight of the Scourge. You'll notice that Death Knights tend to retain some of their original personality after they are brought to life; How much of Naruto is still present is up to you to find out. **

**Also, I would like to take the chance to thank my repeat reviewers CaptainPrice, DemonFallenAngel, Jormun and narutofan020 for taking the time to review my story once more, as well as EK12, Drednaught, apocalyps24, Thorfaxdragonkin and Dragon VS Phoenix for recently starting to do so. **

**Disclaimer: Read the first two chapters and insert funny and/or witty comment here that explains why I don't own Naruto or Warcraft.**

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet) : **"Shut the hell Su. This is why nobody likes you." **

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge.**

**Chapter Three: Research and Development. **

_Some of you may be asking yourselves 'How might I best prove my worth to our great master? How might I best earn the right to be granted immortality through undeath?'_

_There are many paths to such an enlightened state of being and not everyone is cut out to reach the heights of our society. Some of you are destined to be reborn as Ghouls while others attain the glorious state that is only known to the Liches. Your position in your next life and in what form you are given in it depends greatly on your actions in this life. _

_While serving our great master is a step in the right direction to ensuring your soul is kept safe for all eternity, there is more you can do to earn a greater position in the Scourge when your mortal shell finally reaches the end of its usefulness. _

_The greatest way that you can earn your chance at undeath and feel good about it is to be very Giving, Generous and Caring. _

_Freely Give the blessings of an immortal existence to those who let their mortal desires and needs bring them free of the icy cold hand of death. While they might not have earned such a wonderful blessing, without showing such kindness to the unenlightened the Scourge would lack the vast hordes of soldiers it has at its disposal. _

_Be Generous with handing out the blessings of our great and almighty King. It is our great pleasure and our holiest of missions to bring every man, woman and child into the ever open embrace of the Scourge. To let them rejoice in the glory that is undeath as families, friends and brothers and sisters in arms. _

_Care for those that have just underwent the process of becoming immortal while they adept to their new forms and they shall be assured to be cared for when your chance to raise comes._

_While all of you shall proceed to carry out the Lich King's will, some of you were not born with a talent for magic and might feel that you cannot achieve the same state of enlightenment as your more magically talented brothers and sisters. _

_This is just not true. By spying on those who stand against our master because of fear of the unknown by disguising yourself as one of them, you will aid the cause. By maintaining and protecting a plague cauldron or helping to spread plagued food stuffs, you too are giving our master's gift to the world while being generous to those who don't understand yet. By aiding the newly risen, you proof that you care. _

_Remember these words and go out into the world in order to make it a better place!_

_~Final page of the Cult of the Damned booklet 'Preparing for Undeath: How to gain friends and lose enemies'.~_

_..._

**Icecrown Citadel.**

_"Come along Naruto. If we don't hurry we will have to make an appointment with Professor Putricide and I refuse to let that insane bastard get a bigger ego then he already has by making both a Lich and a Death Knight make an appointment!"_

Wordlessly, Naruto sped up after his... Mentor? Sensei? Adviser? He didn't really know what _exactly _the relationship between himself and the Lich was, but for the time being the living skeleton was the person he reported too so he was therefore his boss for the time being.

He had admittingly been falling behind a little, but he felt he had a damn good excuse. He had never seen such a place as the Citadel before. It was... It was... Words failed to describe how AWESOME it truly was. He had never seen a structure this big before in his life and it was filled with some much lif... activity. Life wasn't the right word to use, since the majority of creatures, beasts and monstrosities walking around could not be considered 'living' creatures.

That wasn't to say that there wasn't a total lack of living creatures either. You could see them every now and then, dressed in deep purple robes that covered most of their features much like the robes he was now wearing did, either following following around someone or something that seemed to be a commanding officer of sorts, helping some of the skeletons and ghouls set something up or in some cases take advantage of some of the bone piles nearby in order to summon more skeletons and ghouls before ordering them to lend aid to the task at hand.

Something that became clear as the journey up the larger then life Citadel continued as that the living members of the workforce tended to watch him. Not all of them did it (At least he hadn't caught them doing it) but those that did looked at him in a way that was completely foreign to him but something he had always felt he dreamed of.

They looked towards him with Awe, Respect, Admiration and (In the case of a number of the females) Lust.

There was a least one case where he had let his eyes linger on a female who was most definitely a female since her robe was very form hugging for a little too long. Truth was that the reason he had been looking in the first place was because what little of her skin he could see was a blue/ purple color as well as the fact she had a tail. She noticed him look, smiled at him with naturally purple lips, lipped the words '_I'll be here all day, come by later if you wish to claim this for yourself'' _ before giving her rear a teasing shake before giving it a rather solid slap. Afterwards, she returned back to her work on whatever she had been doing, ignoring the death glares coming from the rest of the females in the room masterfully.

Turning towards his currently rather amused guide, Naruto was still a little stunned when he started asking **"W...What just..." **

_"Happened?" _Amal'Thazad finished, working overtime not to chuckle at the newly risen servant of the Scourge's expression.

**"...Yeah." **

_"...Please tell me that I don't have to explain the whole 'Birds and the Bee's' speech to you." _The lich asked with his voice suddenly being laced with fear at the thought of such an embarrassing situation.

**"OH GOD NO!" **Naruto yelled in bone chilling fear, his voice echoing around the room and drawing the attention of everything there as work ceased for a few moments. Quickly regaining control of himself, the blond suddenly turned to the surprised audience and asked loudly **"What are you all looking at?"**

Silently the crowd went back to work on whatever jobs that they had been doing before they had stopped, giving Amal'Thazard the time he needed to breath out in relief at the fact that they didn't have to go through the damn 'sex' talk. He was an unholy being of great magical power, not some perverted teacher performing the task that a parent should have done!

**"Look, I know about the who 'Birds and Bees' bullshit, but I just want to know why they are looking at me like they have an illness and I'm the only cure?" **Naruto asked in a much softer voice then before as he continued to talk to the Lich as they started to walk again.

_"Well Naruto, have you ever heard the saying that power is a powerful aphrodisiac?" _the Lich questioned, causing Naruto to nod a little in confusion. _"Well Death Knights are considered to be on par with Liches when it comes to being powerful servants of our master. They are almost just as rare as well. It is a very real possibility that none of the Cult of the Damned members we have passed by so far have ever seen a Death Knight before. There are also pretty good odds that they will never see another one for the rest of their lives."_

**"Fair enough I guess... But is it common for them to want to sleep with any Death Knight that crosses their path?"**

_" I'm not the one you should be asking that question too. The only other Death Knight I've had the displeasure of knowing for any length of time was Bloodbane. The arrogant fuck kept demanding that the female human members we got paid homage to him while the rest were, what was it... ah yes, the others were 'Inhuman beasts who shouldn't be allowed to breath the same air as the rest of us'. The Cult of the Damned as a whole tried to avoid dealing with him whenever possible."_

Despite not knowing the now dead and gone Bloodbane on a personal level, Naruto couldn't help but feel he did the right thing by getting rid of the prick, regardless of if he had been alive at the time or not. It spoke a lot about someone when both the enemy and the side they are on are better off with them dead and gone.

**"So you don't have this problem personally?" **Naruto asked innocently enough, a sly grin covering his face as he did.

Amal'Thazard turned his head towards the Death Knight as they started to climb a ramp, his glowing eyes narrowing dangerously. _"I gave up such petty urges when I ascended to the state of enlightenment as a Lich. Besides, power may be an aphrodisiac, but even it has limits. Now a must warn you about the Professor and how he works..."_

...

**Unknown Location, most likely a cave. **

"...Is there anything new to report on the location of the Kyuubi container Zetsu?" The see through, rainbow colored representative of the leader of the gather asked, his purple eyes turning to the venus flytrap looking man who was the only being physically at the meeting.

**"Of course there is. Why else would I call a meeting like this on such short notice?" **Zet demanded angrily before Su stepped in and cut him off before he could say anything more insulting. _"I am afraid that the container of the Kyuubi is dead and the Kyuubi itself lost."_

There was a completely dead silence in the cave at the news. "...Explain." the leader of the organization stated, planning on getting an answer as soon as possible.

_"Because of the nature of the seal on the Kyuubi container, the Yang chakra of the nine tailed beast was locked down by the seal and completely trapped inside of the container when said container died. With its Yin and Yang chakra separated completely, it is impossible for the Kyuubi to reform itself."_

**" While we could normally solve this by simply taking the corpse and finding a way to either undo the seal or extract the Yang chakra from the body, the fact that some bastard stole it prevents us from doing this. So until further notice the Kyuubi is off the table." **Zet added for good measure.

There was a deathly silence as this news quickly spread to everyone at the meeting. A vital piece of their plan had just vanished and they could do nothing about it.

"Tobi wonders how much this changes everything?" Tobi asked, his head tilted to side in an almost puppy dog like manner.

**" Let me put it this way. Because the Kyuubi has decided to roll over and die before we could have a crack at it, our plan has gone so far up shit creek without a paddle it isn't worth trying to save." **

All eyes turned to their leader, silently asking in their own, rather unsure and nervous way 'What the fuck do we do now?'.

After a few moments of this uncomfortable silence, Pein spoke. " We will continue gathering the other tailed beasts while keeping an eye and an ear open for word of the Kyuubi container's body. Odds are it will turn up sooner or later when someone either tries to use the demonic chakra locked inside it for their own purposes or try to sell it on the black market to those that would. We needed to collect the Kyuubi last anyway. All this does is make the task of collecting him easier. Understood?"

All those attending the meeting nodded in understanding. The situation wasn't a major problem until the end, by which time it will have hopefully taken care of itself.

"Dismissed."

All of the images vanished with the exception of Zetsu, who stood there alone for a little while.

_"That could have gone worse."_

**"Shut up Su."**

With their conversation out of the way, Zetsu sunk into the ground, vanishing without leaving a trace of ever being there at all.

...

**Icecrown Citadel, Third Floor, The Plagueworks.**

There are a couple of ways to describe the Plagueworks located on the third floor of the Citadel, depending on just how nice, artistic or punctual you wished to be at the time.

**"This place looks like what would happen if you created a laboratory in the middle of a damn sewer." **was the first thing that came out of Naruto's mouth at the sight, getting a small nod of agreement from the Lich he reported too.

It was also a surprisingly big wing on the floor, made up of a number of different rooms. They had barely entered the wing when they were cut off by a somewhat large gathering of cult of the damned members of various species that seemed to be waiting for something.

"Gather round Doomed new interns!"

The fact that the voice came from behind Naruto didn't bother him as much as just how high pitched the voice was. It was like listening to a guy that had just gotten his balls kicked in so hard that there was a serous risk he would cough them up.

Feeling the metal ground under his feet start to shake a little, Naruto quickly moved to the side, an act that allowed him to avoid getting pushed aside by the rather large...thing that was hurrying over to the small crowd. But on a second glance it was easy to see the true speaker who was riding on top of the large monstrosity.

It...He... looked like he had once appeared to be a miniature breed of human, but some sort of sickness had ravaged him at one stage, making his skin look horribly green. For some reason, the little man had opted to wear his pink hair in a Mohawk. At the sight of his hair, Naruto started having flashbacks of a girl with pink hair punching him in the head... and he was letting her do it? The memory caused Naruto to narrow his eyes a little at the little man riding the monster.

" Moments ago, I was at work with a friend of mine in the Necromancy department, working on the final steps of constructing a flesh giant when I got your page. My friend mistook the ringing crystal as the sign that I was done connecting the right leg and therefore brought the giant to life. The giant walked two steps before its leg fell off, causing it to fall to the ground and break apart! Until all the parts are gathered together again in the one place again I have nothing to do be answer your summons. So here I am. This had better be good."

Watching the crowd, Naruto almost laughed when some human looking guy with a stupid haircut was forcefully pushed to the front in order to answer the pissed off monster riding midget like a sacrificial lamb.

"Sir, the orders say that we were supposed to drain all eight liters of substance fifty seven from subject two hundred and three, but we counted nine. Should we pump a liter back in?"

The silence that followed as clearly the calm before the storm. While Naruto couldn't see the midget's face directly, he could just picture a vein that was just about ready to burst appearing on his forehead.

"That's it... You're all going to run laps around the Citadel until I say stop." The voice that spoke was the kind of calm you get when someone was so mad that it sort of went full circle. There was a small wave of chuckles from the crowd, as if the gnome had just said a funny joke. "You think I'm joking? Ick!"

The monster that the pink haired gnome was riding on responded to its master's unspoken command. With a surprising turn of speed, its fist connected to the face of the cult member that had been chosen to tell the gnome why he had been summoned. There was the large crack of bone as the mans body flew into the air, traveling over the heads of the crowd before smacking into the wall with more body shattering force. When the man hit the ground, his head hung in a weird, unnatural direction.

All the cultists started to run, the gnome and his pet/transportation 'Ick' chasing after them all the while, yelling at them to "RUN FASTER!"

After the gnome, his pet and the crowd had run past, Amal'Thazard slowly glided over to the fallen body of the dead cultist. Lifting his hand slowly, the body began to raise into the air with it. Once it had reached about up to his chest, the lich held it there for a second before suddenly pointing his hand towards Naruto, yelling _"CATCH!" _as the body suddenly shot though the air like a meaty rocket.

Completely caught off guard by the suddenly turn of events, Naruto made an attempt to catch the corpse that was traveling at high speeds towards him. While he did manage to capture the dead body, the sheer force of the impact was enough to knock him right on his ass. Despite the fact that he didn't hear him, Naruto just _knew _that the lich was chuckling on the inside.

_"We'll bring that with us. The Professor can always so more fresh parts for his work."_ was all the Lich said to explain his actions before he started to lead the way once more, Naruto grumbling as he forced himself to his feet to follow, carrying the dead weight with him.

...

**Northern Fire Country, Dirt Road in the middle of nowhere.**

They say that all roads have to lead somewhere. That if you follow a road long enough you will get somewhere sooner or later. This is a lie however and many people have died because of it. Roads don't have to lead anywhere, they just have to have somewhere to start.

This road however lead right to the Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. Ever since the dead had started rising in the northern parts of Fire Country, civilians of all shapes and sizes had started to flee south as refugees. Many had taken this road because A) Konoha had shinobi trained to deal with this sort of thing and B) Because they also had a very big wall.

At the moment, this section of road was empty. The last living thing to pass by was a wagon carrying those who wanted to get some sleep without stopping. If one had good eyesight, you could still see the dust cloud it was trailing behind.

Suddenly, a rune like circle appeared in the middle of the road, glowing brightly against the sunny day. A dome of arcane light quickly takes shape over the circle before vanishing moments later, leaving a woman that hadn't been there before behind. She is dressed in the dark purple robes of her order, one of the few local members who were being returned from the holy land of Icecrown to carry out her task.

Reaching into one of her pockets, the woman quickly removes an amulet that she slides over her head like a necklace. To someone watching, her appearance would suddenly change as if by magic (which it was). Her richly made clothing becomes nothing more then the common every day rags of the peasantry, her skin gaining color and imperfections while covering up her beautiful tear like tattoos on her cheeks. Within seconds, the woman looks just like she had before offering her body and soul to the Lich King and his cause.

Looking into the distance and spotting the dust trail, the woman starts to jog in order to catch up to it before nightfall. It wouldn't be too hard to blend in with the others after that; Just another refugee, fleeing to the safety of Konoha to flee the undead monsters that destroyed her village and her life.

Without anywhere else to go, she might even stay...

...

**Icecrown Citadel, Third Floor, The Plagueworks, Putricide's Laboratory of Alchemical Horrors and Fun**

**(Quick AN: That really is the name of Professor Putricide's lab.) **

Stepping through the entrance doorway, Naruto was once again reminded of a sewer by the sheer amount of pipes that ran overhead, up and down the walls and sometimes through the floor. Vats and glass containers of green and orange substances bubbles everywhere, leaving only the center of the room with enough space for a table.

Currently standing next to the table was who / what Naruto assumed was Professor Putricide. The undead professor was not alone however.

Strapped quite firmly to the table was a man who's image he had seen in his head far more times then he would have liked. He would rather have not had him in there in the first place.

The bastard was struggling in vain against his restraints, on occasion screaming out from the horrible amount of pain he was in. Even someone as medically incompetent as Naruto could tell that having your chest cut open, having all your organs exposed to the outside world and then having someone who looked like they had recently dug themselves out of their grave go to great and somewhat insane efforts to break off your ribs one by one had to hurt like all fucking hell.

Naruto grinned at the sight. Such a thing couldn't be happening to a nicer person.

"...Hmmm... Ribs reinforced by unknown energy source. Normal human bones would only require a fraction of my physical abilities to snap off, but for you I have to use the aid of a hammer. Interesting..."

_"Professor, pardon our interruption but what have you discovered so far?" _ Amal'Thazard asked aloud, catching the scientist off guard by the new arrivals. "What? When did you arrive? How did you manage to get past my anti- invader moths?"

Naruto and Amal'Thazard both blinked at the sudden swarm of questions. Despite the fact that they both knew the man was a complete and utter crackpot before they had even got here, being confronted with said insanity was a whole different ball game. Fortunately, Naruto had dealt with such crazy people in the past. **" I'm afraid the only moths I saw were staked out on a coat rack at the door and neither of us had a coat." **

Seemingly forgotten about the man who's insides were currently show to the world at large strapped tightly to his table, the Professor suddenly went to bang his fist on his table, only to get a weird little wet noise and a loud coughing fit of pain when his fist landed on one of the captured shinobi's lungs. "DAMN IT! How could I have failed to see such a basic flaw in my moths? The unwanted invader isn't going to take the time to hang his coat on the coat rack. They are far too barbaric to undergo such a civilized and polite act, therefore my flesh eating moths won't be triggered!"

Wither or not the moths really did eat flesh was a question that Naruto knew he would one day have to con someone else into finding out. Today however he had other, more important issues to take care of. **" Don't worry Professor. I'm sure one day someone will invent a home invader that is polite enough to use the coat rack. Your flesh eating moths wouldn't have been made in vain." **

"Hmm... Making a polite home invader... Interesting idea and if you don't mind leaving that body you've got over there I might get started on it as soon as I'm done taking this shinobi apart and figuring out how they work..." the Professor stated, his blood soaked hand rubbing his chin as he contemplated the idea of making someone to invade his lab solely to trigger his defenses.

Deciding that now that they were on relatively good terms with the undead mad scientist, Naruto walked over to a small pile of various bodies, dumping the dead cultist he was carrying on top of it, listening to the conversation all the while.

_"So what have you discovered so far Professor?" _

"These Shinobi as you've called them are wonderful test subjects! Just reanimating this one alone gave me a new piece of interesting news." The way the Professor said 'Interesting' was often more commonly used to say 'Bad'. However, there was still a rather keen interest there.

_" How so Professor?" _The Lich asked as Naruto returned to stand by him, once more seeming to ignore the man struggling on the table in order to have a very important and adult conversation, a thing that one sorely misses when the only person near you with something like a brain was Bloodbane.

"Well, for starters, it would appear that this follow was raised by necromancy and exists in an undead state without having once heard the Lich King voice in his head or have the sense of loyalty to the Scourge that all risen by the plague gain upon their rebirth. He is like the Forsaken with the major difference being that he was never loyal to our glorious monarch to begin with!" At the Professors words, a strange silence filled the room with the exception of the man's struggles and sharp intakes of breath that suggested pain and the bubbling of unknown liquids.

For some reason, despite not understanding the situation Naruto felt... horrified at the very thought of the man not even hearing the words of his lord. **"H...How can this be? I was raised and I could hear our Lord's words in my mind as clearly, if not more so then my own. Is this common?"**

The Profession shook his head before answering, his jaw coming loose a little forcing him to put it back into place before it fell off again. " I do not yet understand how such a thing has happened yet, but then I have only just began gathering information from this being. I might find the answer later on."

"However..." glancing between both the man strapped to the table and Naruto, Putricide started to rub his chin as an idea ran through his head. " I believe that the reason you can hear our King and this poor unfortunate soul cannot might have something to do with the ways you were granted the gift of undeath. While this man underwent his rebirth though the use of lower tier necromancy, a fate commonly used to raise ghouls and lower level undead, you were brought back into this world as a death knight, an act that our King himself must have undertaken. You cannot get much higher grade then that."

_"While it is not unheard of for some undead to reject our lord and master, it normally takes outside forces to break the connection between them first. To be raised in Icecrown, inside the Citadel itself and not feel the will of our lord..." _ The Lich began, more shocked then afraid of the thought.

"Of course, this could very well just be a special case. One solder does not an army make after all. We will need to get our hands on some more Shinobi and use different means to try and bless them with undeath before we can publicly proclaim any conclusions to his highness. Only two conflicting test samples are not enough. Other then the man I've currently got on ice, do you have any other test subjects I could use?"

_"I'm afraid not. Any other samples I might have collected where damaged too badly to be used by the fool Bloodbane."_

"I heard that that asshole was gone. Good News for everyone. Glad to be rid of him personally. Always made fun and picked on my children the big bully. Rotface and Festergut have only recently stopped crying and started coming out of their rooms again. I had to make them puppies in order to make them feel better about themselves after that bastard had a crack at them last time he was here. Still not sure what would happen if they met a Death Knight right now, even if it isn't that prick."

**"Maybe I should wait outside then? I don't want to cause them to have a relapse if they saw me and mistook me for him." **Naruto asked, his hand rubbing the back of his neck the whole time. He really didn't like the idea of causing the professors kids any more pain then they had already suffered.

Putricide actually seemed to grin at the suggestion. " It's nice to have a Death Knight that isn't a complete asshole in here for a change. While my children can get temperamental at times, they tend to have short memories when it comes to painful things. If you come back in a week or so I'll introduce you too them. But right now they are outside playing in the snow so you don't have to worry about it.

"Now then, I guess you've come here to find out more about your abilities yes? Then do me a favor and tear out that rib there. It's in the way and I want to have a look at his lungs. The punch I gave it earlier should have punctured it."

**AN: And thus we reach the end of another chapter. I honestly hope you enjoy this one because I lost time I could have been using for sleep to write a lot of it. **

**I always find it annoying that they never let you see how the Scourge interacts within its own ranks when not in or near a war zone. Despite the fact that they have no free will, these beings have to do something with their time while they are waiting for the next command or order to come. They still have a personality after all... or at least the smarter ones do. **

**As well as fan art, I am going to be accepting written suggestions for Naruto's new armor / outfit. Please go into as much detail as you can while taking it in mind that this armor has to suit a shinobi while maintaining Scourge standards. I might even put off writing chapter four for a couple of days in order to give you guys the chance to submit an idea. **

**In future chapters, I'm going to be sending Naruto to Scourge locations in the Plague lands in order for him to aid them and gain some on the job training while the heat (heightened security) in the Elemental Nation's dies down a little. While I already have a quest in mind already, I might be willing to create a fan's suggestion if they write it well enough and it makes sense for Naruto to be doing it. **

**Once again I would like to ask everyone who reads this to leave a review, as well as check out the stories of those who are polite enough to take the time to read mine. **

**Goodnight everybody and see you'll next time. **

**(20,000+ words in three chapters! Sweet!)**


	4. Chapter Four: Path of Frost

**AN: Well, the entries have been made and we have a winner. Naruto's armor has been selected. It will be making an appearance in this chapter. I was going to have Naruto's first major task for the Scourge to begin this chapter, but I've decided that it can be put off until the next one. I feel that this is a bit more realistic a step forward for Naruto.**

**My name has also been mentioned by Colonel-Mustard1990 in his work in progress "Angels of a Storm". Please check out his work at some point. **

**Now for the chapter awards. I would like to thank CaptainPrice, Jormun, narutofan020, EK12 and Thorfaxdragonkin for being repeat reviewers. You are entitled to any free advertising that I can offer you. **

**I would like to give an honorary mention to Krulk since he created an account solely to leave a review to my story. **

**AbitterPill, wolfdiablo, Luxlucis85DK and ****Skelo** ** also get a shout out because they took the time to write a review to my story. **

**Disclaimer: What do I have in common with the common homeless man? We don't change our clothing as often as we should, we eat crap to stay alive and neither of us own the rights to Naruto or Warcraft (To my knowledge).**

**...**

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet) : **"Shut the hell Su. This is why nobody likes you." **

Lich King: "_**Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge.**

**Chaper Four: First steps of Knighthood; Path of Frost. **

_When approaching one of the non-blessed miners, take great care. Some will merely complain about hearing voices in their head, along with the standard curses and insults towards your person for trusting in the power of our lord and master. This is to be expected. _

_Others will start preaching off about some false god and either A) Try to remove your brain with a pick axe or B) Try to remove their own brain with a pickaxe. This is also to be expected and is exactly why you should never wonder around without an armed escort at all times. _

_Despite the many positive things about __Saronite, this is one of its greatest dirty little secrets. While we are not completely sure what the connection truly is, those who reject the strength and guidance of our mighty King will be driven insane by the voice of the Old God Yogg-Saron. Beware the whispers of this fiend, for he will attempt to test your faith and drive you as insane as the poor mortal non-believers. _

_Despite the effects only taking place where large amounts of Saronite are gathered, Our lord and __master's power is more then a match for the corrupted monster hidden somewhere under the frozen __earth of our darkness blessed land of Northrend. Not only is our King immune to this foul creatures mind breaking corruption, but those who pledge themselves to him in both life and death are safe guarded from the voices of the Old Gods as well._

_Remember to keep your faith in our Master undying and you will be able to join the final march on the lair of the cursed god Yogg-Saron with relative safety when the Master decides to end that foul monster once and for all. _

_~The Cult of the Damned Foreman's guide, Chapter six, "Hidden Dangers of mining Saronite."~_

_..._

**Somewhere in the frozen plains of Icecrown**

**"So what exactly as we doing out here?" **Naruto asked, following the Lich at a respectable distance. However, instead of the answer he wanted to hear, all Naruto got in return was a _"You will see when we get there."_

It hadn't been so long ago that the two of them had been in the Professor's Lab. Despite the fact that Putricide was somewhat insane, Naruto couldn't help but like the man. To him, the Professor was a man who had long ago abandoned what others thought of him while doing everything in his power to make his often insane and twisted dreams a reality. It was a very respectable trait that few people ever truly achieved.

Still, after they had left the lab with a promise from the Professor that he wouldn't rest until he had discovered just _why _the Shinobi's organ's were resistant to the rot the more common of Scourge plagues (A test that caused a satisfying amount of pain to the bastard, Naruto felt), Amal'Thazad had requested that Naruto join him out on the frozen planes.

Following the Lich over the ever lasting ice and snow that made up the heart of the Scourge Empire, Naruto couldn't help but glance over the wind swept plains. Icecrown was a death trap to the living. Nothing could grow here, the temperature, wind and ice made sure of that. The same things that prevented plants from growing also kept those who didn't wish to freeze to death away from the place. It was rather suiting that the Scourge picked one of the few places on the planet that was outright hostel to those who needed warmth to stay alive to set up their homeland.

But once you managed to get past the cold and the lack of food, one could see the true beauty that the place defended from the corruption of the living so mercilessly. Despite the lack of sun or moonlight, things that were lost because of the seemingly endless cloud cover, the snow and ice still managed to glow...

_"We are here." _was all Amal'Thazad announced as they both stopped at what seemed to be just another random field of ice and snow. Looking around at the location, Naruto couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. **"And just what is it we are doing out here?"**

The once human skeleton turned in mid air, giving Naruto the impression that if he could Amal'Thazad would be smiling at him. _"We are here to teach and train you to become the true agent of the Scourge you were brought back to be, Death Knight."_

...

**Konoha, Public Library. **

"...Alright. You have to bring this book back in two weeks time. Feel free to come back before then though." With a thump of her rubber stamp, the transaction was complete.

"Thank you Ms." was all the eight year old girl said, happy that she had borrowed out her first book. As the girl over to her older sister, the library assistant that had performed the transaction smiled kindly as she returned to her task of organizing the books that had been returned and figuring out where they were meant to go.

_Such a kind, sweet child... When the time comes, I'll make sure her whole family gets the blessing of undeath so that they can be happy together forever. _The woman thought to herself, happy that she had the means to make such a joyous thing happen for someone else.

It hadn't taken too long for her to catch up with the wagon. Getting into Konoha however was much harder but she was able to get in because she was well and truly a civilian. She had simply used the name she had used in her former life, an alias that worked better then any that could have been made up by a professional forger. It had even been backed up by people who had once lived in her village but escaped before the plague had swept through.

The plague that she had brought there...

While she only caught a peep into the world of the Cult of the Damned, she already could tell that those who joined came to it for different reasons. Many came for money, power, the chance to live forever...

She had joined to find out who had murdered her sister...

Her sister had been married for years to a man who had turned to hard sake in order to deal with his problems. While she never spoke of it to anyone, there was evidence that it was an abusive relationship...

Then one day she turned up dead in the river. At first everyone said that she had drowned by accident, but when the two large bruises that looked like hand prints were discovered, that was quickly ruled out as the cause of death. But not a single person publicly accused her sisters husband (and by legal rights, her own brother-in-law) of the murder, since despite his drinking problem he was _still _a wealthy and somewhat well liked member of their village. There was no proof to connect him to the death of his wife because since nobody wanted to look for it, it vanished.

Unwilling to let the murderer of her sister get away with his crimes, she had looked long and hard to find a way to speak with the only witness to her sister's death that would willing tell her the truth... the spirit of her dead sister.

It was this desire for justice that caused her to find the Cult of the Damned. In exchange for her loyalty, she was given what she sort. When she spoke to the ghost of her sister, her sister spoke of all the hateful crimes that her husband committed against her that she was far to ashamed to speak of in life.

When Baron Bloodbane gave her a plant and told her what to do with it, she had obeyed, making sure that her murderous Brother-In-Law was the first to be raised into undeath, resulting in his beheading and the burning of his body after her murdered his two best drinking buddies in a mindless rage.

Placing the last book onto the shelf it was meant to go on, the woman blinked as she came back to the here and now, giggling a little at how foolish she had been to get caught up in her own thoughts. It was almost scary just how much free time you had to think about everything when you were so used to your job you could do it in your sleep.

Turning around to head back to her little service desk, the woman almost ran right into someone who was looking at the few books on tracking that the library was permitted to have. Looking the woman over, her white eyes quickly gave away her family. She seemed...lost in thought about something.

"Pardon me Ms.." The libarian asked, shocking the girl out of her trance and causing her to turn the color of a strawberry, most likely ashamed at being caught lost in her own thoughts in a public place. Once the shock wore off, the girl seemed to shift to a more confident stance... but there was something...defeated about her. You couldn't see just what it was, but you could just tell by looking at her that something had gone horrible wrong for her.

"Oh I'm sorry... I wasn't in your way was I?" the girl asked, her voice fighting a losing battle to stay steady. The cultist shook her head as an answer, trying to place where she had seen this sort of behavior before.

"Not at all Ms..."

"Hinata..."

"Ms Hinata. You weren't in the way at all. But might you tell me what you are looking for? I might be able to help you find it."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you could help me find what I've lost Ms..."

"Ami. If you're sure I can't help you right now, I guess I should get back to work. But if you ever feel like talking, I'm always here."

"Thank you Ami. I...I'll remember you if I need to speak to someone."

Giving the Hyuuga a respectful nod as a way of departing, Ami smiled warmly as she headed back to her desk job. She knew her name. She knew the family. All she had to do now was find out about the person.

The girl was hurting, longing for _something_. The sooner Ami discovered what that something was, the more time she would have to come up with a plan to approach the young woman. Her gifts would serve her master nicely, and it would make Ami feel good if she could honestly help the girl out with her problem.

Whatever it might be...

...

**Icecrown, Middle of nowhere.**

**"What sort of training? I thought you didn't know anything about Chakra?" **Naruto asked, suddenly paying a great deal of attention to the Lich.

Amal'Thazad chuckled at the eagerness of his student. This would be both a gift and a burden for the ivory- blonde Death Knight during his first trial of the path of Frost. _" While I still do not fully understand the nature of 'Chakra' and how to manipulate it, that is not what I am here to train you in. What do you understand about your current state of being, Death Knight?" _

Naruto paused at the question. How much about his current situation _did_ he truly understand. Not a lot, if he was honest with himself. **"I know that I am a Death Knight. I know that Death Knights are quite rare, but I don't really know just why that is. Other then that... I don't really know." **Naruto confessed truthfully.

_"Not unexpected..." _The Lich sighed aloud, putting one of his claw like hands to his forehead to rub his skull, finding it slightly annoying that he was the one to have to explain this. _" Death Knights are considered amongst the strongest of the Scourge because they are considered one of the few true great works of Necromancy. You don't age, you don't have to eat, sleep or drink and unlike most lesser undead you have something akin to the mind you once had. However, that isn't important to you right now. What matters is the trio." _

**"The Trio?" **Naruto asked, thinking that the name wasn't that well thought out.

_" Whenever a Death Knight is created from the fallen, either spiritually or physically, their bodies are infused with three of the primary dark magics of the Scourge, which was rather foolishly nicknamed the 'Trio' by some of the Cult years ago. Sadly, the name stuck. But it is important that you learn how to use these gifts granted to you as quickly as possible if you are to provide proper assistance when we return to the Elemental Nations." _

Naruto didn't really remember anything more then images and flashes from his days amongst the living, but he did remember he had always been ready and eager to learn some new jutsu or attack. It was a trait that he was glad to see he had kept in the transaction from living to undead. **"So what are these new dark magics I've got then?" **Naruto asked, quickly becoming very excited at the thought of what he could do now.

The lich chuckled a little darker then before. He was right. What he was about to get this boy to do was going to be a form of sheer torture for him. It gave him that small, warm feeling that all teachers get when doing right by their students makes them suffer a little. It wouldn't be a true education without a little pain after all.

_"The three schools of magic that the Scourge practice come down to three primal elements. Blood, Frost and Unholy. As a Lich, I do not practice Blood magic and there are better teachers to train you in wielding the Unholy powers you can command. I will be teaching you in the arts of Frost, or Ice magic, if you wish to call it such." _

Images of a girl's image in a dome of mirrors made of ice flashed through Naruto's mind. It... was a rather comforting memory, despite the nature of it. **"I believe I met someone in the Elemental Nations years ago who was naturally born with the ability to create and use ice jutsu. I think... I think she is dead through, and that she was the last of her kind... " **Naruto finished sadly.

Oddly enough, the Lich seemed to pause at the news for a few moments before sighing. _"A true shame. I would have liked to have compared that so called kekkei genkai to the frost magics of the Liches. It would have been interesting to see the result. Oh well..." _

Clearing his throat, Amal'Thazad got back to the whole reason they were here in the first place: Business. _ "We will have plenty of time to practice your Frost abilities much later on, since we will __be working together for the foreseeable future but now is the best time to at least unlock your powers over ice, here at the coldest place on the planet. Do you know anything about meditation?" _When Naruto gave a small nod, Amal'Thazad continued _"Then please, take off your clothing and take a spot on the snow." _

Despite the sheer oddness of the request, Naruto did it rather quickly. The cold didn't really bother him despite the fact it should be causing enough frost bite to kill him and the only thing that would possibly bear witness to him being naked out here was Amal'Thazad, who had long ago removed his own flesh and muscle in order to reach Lichdom in the first place.

Once the clothing was removed, Naruto simply folded it up nicely and placed it on the ground a little away from himself as he took a cross legged seat in the snow.

Amal'thazad nodded his approval at Naruto's ability to follow an order without hesitation. There were far too many Death Knights that kept a sense of modesty that sort of got in the way at times. _"I want you to clear your mind of everything else and focus solely on the ice, snow and freezing cold wind around you. I want you to embrace the cold into your own body and heart, aligning yourself with it completely."_

_"Once you have aligned yourself with the frozen heart of Icecrown, you will be able to tap the Frost magic that is apart of your very being at will. Even if in the end you chose to master a different element completely, once you access the Ice magic running through you will always been able to use it at will. I will know when you have succeed. You are to remain as you are until I return and tell you otherwise. You may begin."_

With that one order, Naruto closed his eyes, seeking to achieve the state of being that Amal'thazad had asked of him.

The Lich waited a few minutes before he started to float back to the Citadel. He had a small gift for his new partner that needed to be prepared. Besides, it would still take a few days at least before Naruto to connect to the Ice magic flowing through him and the Lich would know the moment he had succeed.

He had other things he needed to do in the meantime.

...

**Unknown Location; Elemental Nations. **

A creature that had existed for more then tens of thousands of years began to chuckle at the world above it.

While its plans for freedom were still underway and they were nearing completion, that was not why this creature was happy.

The happiness was because it was having so much fun playing with its little toys on the surface of the world. Another of its kind might have simply driven the human's above them completely insane and been done with it, but this creature took great pleasure in its little mind games. Their minds were so guarded, so secure... it took years to truly drive them mad and what sweet madness it was!

If it had simply tried to crush the minds of the human's above, far too many for his liking would have resisted the crushing force of reality. But this way... a small twist of a plan here, a small idea implanted there, enraging or enlarging an ego somewhere else and it got to witnesses horrific things that made it smile so sweetly.

It had many pawns in the world above, even if only one of them was a true believer in its power; It had just used one to eliminate the last of the original guardian's pets. It was a truly good year. All it had to do now was wait for his worshiper to complete the rest of the plan to gain its freedom from its earthly prison.

Might as well play around a little more in the mean time...

...

**Icecrown, Middle of Nowhere, Four Days later.**

Despite the fact that a minor snow storm had blown through Icecrown the day before, Amal'Thazad still found back tracing his steps the day before rather easy. Mostly, this was because he could float over the snow now matter how deep or dangerous it was to step on. The ghouls following him had a much harder time going, but they clawed their way through the snow and ice easily enough.

When they reached the spot that the Lich had left Naruto, all they found was freshly fallen snow and ice as far as the eye could see with no sign that there was any form of life nearby, either living or undead. The ghouls didn't question the command of the Lich when he said _"Start digging."_

It took a good fifteen minutes to remove enough snow to uncover the stiff corpse that looked like it had been frozen solid before it had even been buried. Ice hung from blond hair that could be mistaken for ivory, while Naruto's body was turn a deep blue color. He was still sitting in the cross legged position that he had been in when the Lich had left him here. If Naruto had still been living, he would have been long dead by now.

One of the dumber ghouls stumbled towards the body that looked like a frozen piece of meat, muttering something about "Free...Meal..." between animistic growls. Just before it managed to get close enough to reach the blond in order to take a bite, Amal'Thazad spoke only three words at the sight. _"It is time." _

Before the ghoul even knew what hit it, a blue pulse stuck it in the head and chest. It didn't make a sound for a few seconds before falling backwards, its head breaking apart as it impacted with the ground like a cheaply made glass cup, shattering in shards of flash frozen flesh, blood and skull fragments.

Naruto's left arm had moved so quickly that some of the shards of ice that had grown on his flesh had torn into the limb a little, but for the most part he ignored whatever pain it might have caused him. With a great deal of cracking, his eyes opened, the unnatural blue glow shining brighter then normal due to the ice that still covered most of his body.

With much greater care then he had taken with his left arm, Naruto began to move his limbs and body again, breaking off and brushing off ice and snow of his person respectfully. Standing up slowly in order to avoid harming his legs in the process, Naruto began to move his limbs with great care in order to warm up the frozen blood in his veins. It wasn't painful or anything, but it did make him rather stiff.

**"How long have I been here?" **was the first question the blond asked, seemingly not noticing the dead ghoul.

_"Four days. I'm glad to see that you used that time wisely." _ Amal'Thazad replied, inspecting the shattered glass like figments that had once been a ghoul's head. Despite enjoying the praise, Naruto's attention was elsewhere, searching the ground nearby for something that clearly wasn't there anymore.

**"By any chance you didn't dig up the clothing I had before, did you?" **Naruto asked, already expecting the worst but hoping for the best anyway. _"Odds are those things blew away in the snow storm that passed though yesterday." _Naruto sighed at the answer. He suspected that if he was seen by just one of the many female Cult of the Damned members in this state, more would come and he would be completely mobbed, regardless of what anyone did. Death by fan girls... He didn't like his odds of getting a second chance if that happened.

_"I did however foresee such a thing happening though. This seemed like the best time to introduce you to your new armor as well." _was all the Lich said as one of the ghouls that had come with him dropped a package in the snow in front of Naruto.

Taking his time in picking up the package (Mostly due to his stiff body parts) Naruto tore into the package with careful ease. While the flesh wound on his left arm had been tiny and had healed itself by this point, his oxygen lacking blood hadn't completely unfrozen yet.

The first things that came out of the bundle was an undershirt and a pair of underwear, which the blond thankfully put on. With the whole modesty issue taken care of, Naruto took out and slowly inspected each piece before putting it on.

The first item looked like it was designed to be a chest piece. It was made out of some sort of leather that Naruto had never seen before with pieces of the dark blue metal that Bloodbane's armor had been made out of woven through the leather, reenforcing it nicely without impairing movement. Sliding it over his head, Naruto was surprised at just how light it was. He might as well have been wearing something made of normal everyday cloth.

The next item to draw his attention were a pair of pants that matched the chest piece in design and function, using the blueish black metal to offer some protection while keeping movement completely free of impairment. Putting them on as well, Naruto turned his attention back to the package, removing what looked like a pair of arm guards.

Unlike the armor so far, the arm guards were completely made out of the blue/black metal. Sliding his arm carefully into one of them, Naruto noticed that it covered his forearm till just under the elbow, sticking to the theme of 'Movement first'. Placing the other one on, Naruto noticed the slightest of differences between the two around the bottom of his right wrist. Twisting his hand upwards to press down on the difference, a rather sharp spike slid out from under his right wrist, surprising Naruto a little at the sheer speed that the metal had moved.

Once he was over his shock, he examined the blade in silence, taking note of the fact it looked like it could tear through metal with relative ease. Flesh and bone wouldn't have a pray. Removing the weight of his right wrist off the little bottom in the arm guard, the metal spike returned to the hiding spot from whence it came.

Planning to play with his new toys later, Naruto quickly looked at the last two items that came with the armor. Shin guards, made from the same metal as the arm guards. Other then being forced to sit down in order to put them on, there wasn't any hidden little tricks built into them. They just served the simple purpose of protecting his shins from harm. Not overly impressive, but useful none the less.

Looking down at himself, Naruto grinned a little at the sight of multiple shades of dark and darker blue. He wasn't quite sure how he looked yet since he couldn't see his reflection, but he had a feeling that he must have looked down right bad ass.

_"The leather in that armor is made from the hide of a downed Frost Wrym. When you start learning to control the unholy energy inside of you, your teacher will show you a somewhat useful trick you can do with your armor." _ Amal'Thazad explained, reminding Naruto that the lich was still standing there.

**"I love the armor and everything, not how come there aren't any shoes?" **Naruto asked, lifting one of his bare feet to support the argument. For the first time since he had met him, Naruto saw Amal'Thazad look a little sheepish... or at least as sheepish as a thirteen foot tall skeleton with enough magical power to cause wide spread destruction at will could be.

_"We didn't know your shoe size when we made the armor..." _The Lich explained, feeling a little stupid for doing so. There was a slightly awkward silence for a few moments with nothing but the howling wind to break it.

**"So what happens now?" **Naruto asked, interested in what the next step was.

_"Simple really." _Amal'Thazad stated with certainty, the awkwardness forgotten. _" We go find your other two teachers so that you can learn to harness the powers that are your given right to wield." _

**"So where do we find someone to teach me then?" **Naruto asked, already building up his eagerness to learn, if for no other reason then to move around a little bit to help speed up the defrosting of his blood.

_"Thankfully, we will find what we seek in the same place. We have to go to the Plague lands." _

**AN: Once more, we have a new chapter. **

**I know I said something last chapter about what was going to happen in this one, but that has been put back to chapter five in order to have this chapter in place. It just made a bit more sense for it to happen now then later. **

**The armor that Naruto is wearing was suggested by ABitterPill. I still need some suggestions for the whole shoe department. Despite my research into the field, I'm not really sure how chakra and shoes work out yet. **

**The Cultist of the Damned currently hiding in Konoha has been named Ami for no other reason then because it was the first name that came to mind. I needed to name her anyway. **

**I am putting up a new poll the moment this chapter is uploaded. While I am going to have Naruto learn all three different talents that all Death Knights have, he still needs one to major in. You will get your chance to vote for if Naruto is going to favor using Frost, Blood or Unholy talents in battle. **

**I think I've covered everything important... **

**Goodnight everybody, and I hope you take the time to review. **

**Kiue Jin. **


	5. Chapter Five Real one:Detours Ahead

**AN: I am sorry for the delay of this chapter. As I said before, a lot of stuff happened that took up a great deal of my time, as well as caused major delays. Hopefully this chapter is worth the wait. **

**I know that normally I would take the time to go through the list of people who left a review and publicly thank them, but I simply did not have the time to go through the list this time around. This doesn't mean that I don't respect any of my readers, it just means that I've been working so hard to make you guys (and possibly girls) happy that I simply do not have the time to write down all of your names. **

**The results of the 'What kind of Death Knight' poll are in. 28 people voted over the poll while others just tried to PM me their votes. There have been some really good cases for each different branch but in the end I have to make a decision. **

**Naruto is going to be a Frost/Unholy hybrid, not only because I believe that is the best path for him but because those two were almost always neck and neck in the poll. Since Frost won by a vote, those are going to be the stronger of his talents. **

**Disclaimer: If the quality of ones work reflects of the type of person they truly are, then you could clearly see that I am a strange person who doesn't make money from this. I really wish I did but no one from Blizzard seems to be hiring. **

…

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet) : **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King: "_**Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge.**

**The Real Chapter Five: Path of the Damned; Detours Ahead.**

_What defines something as Holy or Unholy? _

_This is a rather interesting question that is often debated by not only ourselves but almost every creature capable of thought regardless of its status amongest the living, dead, undead or otherwise. _

_For example, the Night Elves who live in the forests of Northern Kalimdor believe that nature is sacred and should be safe guarded while things such as Arcane or Fel magics are unnatural in their eyes and need to be stomped out as quickly as possible. _

_However, the High Elves embrace Arcane magic with the same passion that Night Elves view nature. Of course, this has pitted them against each other on a number of occasions due to their different values and beliefs. _

_The so called Blood Elves take this one step further, drawing forth Fel magics in order to help deal with their addiction to magic. This has caused great stress in deplomatic relations with their fellow elves, who both share the view that Fel magic is Unholy, the tool of demons and their servants and slaves. _

_The debate of what is holy and what isn't has divided the Elven people into these factions. And they are not the only ones. Almost all the different races are divided by such beliefs with the exception of three. Demons, Goblins and the Scourge. _

_While Demons do not bother debating over things such as Holy and Unholy, they divide themselves through greed and petty power struggles. _

_Goblins also don't care about such things as Holy or Unholy, letting their Capitalism remove the need for such things. To them, Holy or Unholy are merely words that can add an extra bonus to their paychecks. But like the Demons, they let their greed and lust for power at all costs divide them. _

_The Scourge is united in the purpose of fulfilling the Lich Kings will. It doesn't really matter how we achieve this task. We will use any and all tools that are useful in furthering our goals. Holy, Unholy, doesn't really matter. _

_In the end, all it comes down to is perception. If something is Holy or Unholy is a personal matter. It is completely up to you._

_~Chapter One of best selling book 'Unholy or just harmless fun?', made highly popular for Chapter Seven's in-depth description on how to summon Succubi and other lust demons.~ _

…

**Western Plaguelands, Scholomance****.**

The room had been prepared for this sort of thing beforehand, even if it wasn't for this case exactly. As one of the key strongholds of the Scourge, it was expected to be a staging area for raids and invasions into non-Scourge held lands, such as those to the south, west and north of the Plaguelands. As such, commanders and leaders needed to be able to come and go as they pleased, which led to the creation of this room.

Apart from the vast amount of glowing runes and magical symbols all over the walls and the large circle of runes in the center of the floor, the room itself was completely bare. It was clearly a room meant for people to suddenly appear in blindly. Which was what was happening now as the room seemed to be lost in a powerful glow for a few seconds before the runes started to dim again, leaving an amused Lich and a death knight on his hands and knees trying to dry heave in its wake.

_"Don't be such a cry baby. It wasn't that bad." _Amal'thazad stated, trying to prevent the chuckle from escaping his teeth (Since that was the closest thing he had to lips anymore) at the sight of Naruto on the ground, over reacting to the teleportation in his opinion. It really was a rather funny sight to see. Everyone reacted to the teleport spell differently after all.

"**You think it wasn't that bad? I feel like an eight year old boy who was just unlucky enough not to be torn apart by a mob of middle aged pedophiles." **Naruto grumbled as he waited for his stomach to sort itself out. He might not have been able to get sick but that wasn't from a lack of trying in this case.

Amal'thazad couldn't help himself as he started to chuckle without restraint, finding the Blonde's reaction to the whole situation to be just so god damn funny. _"And just how do you know what it feels like to be the center of attention of a mob of pedophiles Naruto?" _

The blank stare that Naruto gave the lich could only be found in nature, the oh-so famous 'Deer caught in the headlights of a Goblin Bike' look. **"Did… Did you just crack a joke about pedophiles?" **The Lich merely grinned knowingly to himself as he started to float towards the open door, Naruto grumbling as he got to his feet about smart arsed bone people.

After walking down a couple of hallways in complete silence, Naruto started to take in just where they were. It looked like some sort of underground lair that seemed to ring a bell in his memory, but it was a lot less Spartan then the memory. Everyone where he looked there was something new to lay your eyes on. There were Books, Bones, Banners, Arcane circles of runes and even a stuffed Crocodile hanging up from the ceiling….

That last one made Naruto pause mid step in order to make sure that he had indeed seen the stuffed water based reptile and he hadn't merely gone completely insane. The thing was there alright. It was just hanging there with its jaws wide open, wearing a bright purple wizard's hat with white stars on it and sunglasses covering its eyes. Its tongue was hanging out with a large diamond ring pieced through it like a tongue stud.

Hearing the blond put his foot down and not continuing on, the Lich turned around to see what had made Naruto stop in his tracks. _"So, you noticed the Croc then?"_

"**I've never seen anything like this before… What's it doing here anyway?" **

"_It's a very fundamental part of magic. The stuffed croc hanging from the ceiling is as traditional as the cauldron or the robes. Not having it could be highly dangerous." _

"**Yikes, I guess it really is important then…"**

"_More then you could possibly understand, since from what I've discovered from your people they don't practice traditional magic."_

"**Fair enough I guess… So what exactly does it do?"**

"_What do you mean?"_

"**If this thing is so damn important to whatever magic is used here, what the hell does it do?"**

The deathly silenced that followed this question was so thick that crickets couldn't even pierce it.

"**You don't actually know what it's meant to be used for, do you?" **

"_We don't have time for such childish questions. Your teacher in the unholy arts is waiting for us."_

"**Hey! Don't change the subject! Get back here and answer the bloody question! Bloody know it all lichs" **Naruto muttered to himself as he gave chase to the floating bag of bones.

For a few moments, they walked down the hallways in silence stepping past, around or in some cases over the odd Cult of the Damned member or undead locals. As they started to take a set of steps downwards, Naruto finally broke the silence between them.

"**So who exactly are we here to see, anyway?"**

"_We are going to meet one of the greatest wielders of the unholy arts the Scourge has ever had. A former paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand named Rokir." _The lich answered, floating down the steps with a graceful ease.

"**Pala-what?" **Naruto asked, his head tilted in confusion at the title. **"Is that sort of like a chuunin or something?" **

Amal'thazad took a moment to try and figure out just how to explain what a paladin was. Such a thing didn't really exist in the Elemental Nations from what he had been able to tell. It was one of the reasons he liked it there so bloody much.

"_A paladin is a holy-then-thou stuck up arsehole that undergoes military and religious training to the point that their zealot like deviation grants them a range of magical powers devoted to smiting the wicked, serving the greater good blah blah blah. Most death knights were paladins at one time or another but they gave up the powers their zealotry gave them when they abandoned their faith and joined us…" _Pausing for a moment, the Lich felt it important to add _"Well, expect for one; but in all fairness we haven't really converted him yet. We're just controlling his body like a puppet until we can make him see our point of view. No point locking him up somewhere and letting him go to waste after all."_

Nodding his head due to understanding the logic behind this cause of action, Curiosity ran over Naruto like the cat associated with its namesake. While he still didn't understand exactly what a paladin was, he knew the kind of religious stuck up pricks that might just rival them. **"So if he was once a stuck up prick with magical powers, how did he end up being a death knight then?"**

"_While I don't know all the facts, the tale of how Rokir rose to being a death knight is one of the more well-known ones. You see, most paladins are brought low because they lusted for money, power or revenge and their faith in their religion was broken because of it. Rokir's faith was broken by love of all things."_

"**Love? You've got to be kidding…"**

"_I kid you not. Rokir fell in love with a priestess of the holy light. I don't think anyone living, dead or otherwise knows her name other than Rokir himself anymore. Anyway, our young paladin spent years trying to win her heart. He brought her wonderful gifts, performed great and often dangerous tasks in her name at her request, went shoe shopping with her and most likely a countless number of other hells that all men in love go through when they are trying to woo their 'chosen one'. _

_In the end, Rokir was thrown out of the Order of the Sliver Hand because he let his feelings for the Priestess get in the way of his duty. When he went to see her again, she turned him away. Since he was no longer a member of the Order, she said, he no longer had the status to date a Priestess like herself."_

The image of a pink haired girl punching him in the head flashed through Naruto's confused mind. He didn't know who she was, but he suspected that he might have been a part of a rather destructive relationship with her at some point. Shaking the thought from his mind, the blond banished the memory back to the past. It wasn't important to him anymore. That memory belonged to him when he was alive and now that that chapter of his (Pun intended) life was over, all he could do now was move on and embrace undeath to the best of his abilities. Let it not be said that he was one to back down from new challenges.

"_The next day, during some sort of religious meeting or whatever it is that those light worshiping sheep do when they flock to a church, Rokir kicked down the door with a small band of hired thugs. Within minutes, they had crippled or disabled every single person in that building. It was at this point that Rokir reportedly found the Priestess who was his Ex and tied her to the main alter before raping her in front of the whole coronation. After he was done, he tore off whole chunks of her skin and broke her arms and legs before exiting the church. Once he and his thugs were outside, they sealed every entrance and exit of the church shut before setting the place ablaze with everyone inside of it being burnt alive."_

"_Two hours later, Rokir walked into the nearest Scourge held outpost and offered his body and soul to the Lich King. He has been with us ever since."_

Naruto felt sick again. It was a strange feeling that should have been impossible for something that had not only ceased to be alive but had been raised from the grave again through dark means to feel but he defied all expectations once again. A part of him wanted to hurl but the majority kept itself in control.

"**That seems…rather over the top for something like revenge, doesn't it?" **Naruto managed to ask, his voice losing a little bit of its nerve as he asked it.

The Lich picked up on the weakness right away, but for the time being decided to put it aside for now, assuring himself that it was merely because the boy was still newly raised from the grave. He would grow out of it sooner or later.

"_Well, wither you agree with his tactics of not, there is no denying that Rokir is one of the Scourges greatest Death Knights when it comes to the matter of unholy magics. He is third only to the Lich King and the Major-Dome themselves." _

…

**Scholomance, Bone Pit**

Rokir was unhappy.

Ever since being reborn as a death knight, he had little cause not to be happy. He got to rape, pillage and slaughter to his black hearts content and not only did his Lord and Master approve of his practices, he encouraged them. It was the kind of employee/ boss relationship that people would have killed for. He knew he had.

But now the powers that be had pulled him away from the carnage that he loved in order to show some new meat the bloody ropes. It did stroke his ego a little that when it came to showing the new guy how to be an unholy bastard, he was the first person they contacted but still, it was a slight annoyance to get pulled away from his fun and pleasure to deal with this.

"**Is this the new runt?" **was all Rokir asked as a lich he hadn't seen before entered the room, escorting what could only have been the new death knight to have ascended to their ranks. He wasn't impressed. Sure he had heard the stories of Bloodbane's death by the new guy's hands, but Bloodbane was an arrogant dumb ass. Two drugged up goblins and a drunken priest would have been more than enough to take that stupid asshole down.

Naruto for his part actually growled a little at the runt comment, only to be waved into silence by Amal'thazad. _"Yes, he is the new Death Knight that is taking Bloodbane's old spot. I am sure you know why we are here then?" _

"**Of course I do. You want me to teach the little runt the most unholy arts of the damned. How to wield his dark gifts given to him to the best of his abilities… blah blah blah, something along those lines, right?" **Rokir asked, raising an unseen eyebrow under his helmet as if daring them to say they were here for something else.

"_That pretty much covers why we are all here rather nicely. The question is can you teach him?" _was all Amal'thazad asked. At the end of the day, that was the only question during this conversation that needed to be answered. Naruto showed a surprising amount of tact and remained silent during the exchange, although the jab at his height was rather annoying.

Seemingly thinking about it for a moment, Rokir examined the potential student. Going so far as to stand up from the makeshift bone throne he had been sitting on, the older death knight examined the younger one in such a way that Naruto couldn't help but feel that the man would have been able to see into his soul if he still processed it.

"**Tell me runt, were you a warlock in life?" **wasn't a question that Naruto had been expecting to be asked, but none the less he recovered quite quickly. **"No. At least, I don't think so. What exactly is a warlock?"**

Rokir's gaze turned to the Lich with surprising speed. There was a clear level of anger in his eyes that could clearly be seen under the helm he was wearing. **"I'm sorry but has the IQ standard suddenly been fucking dropped since I was raised? How the hell did someone who doesn't even know what a fucking warlock is ever earned the Lich Kings blessing? Has his highness changed suddenly without anyone knowing? Last I checked he would have put this fool down for stupidity."**

Naruto felt the growl rise in his throat. He really wanted to tear into this asshole but he was smart enough to know that he needed this assholes help. If he was to simply rip him a new one it would not help in the long run anyway... yet. For now, he would remain silent, letting Amal'thazad speak on his behalf. For now…

"_Naruto here is from the Elemental Nations, the recently discovered block of land to the east. While they do have some breed of magic there, it's more related to shamanism and voodoo then traditional magic. While there are demons there, most of them are just large animal spirit gods with the wrong title. They don't really have what we would call a warlock." _Amal'thazad explained, getting a look of interest from not just Rokir but Naruto as well.

"**You mean to tell me that they are basically human versions of those bloody trolls in Zul'Drak with their so called 'Empire'?" **Rokir asked, his eyebrow rose in curiosity this time. Thinking about that explanation for a moment, Amal'thazad was able to see just how well it worked in this situation.

"_They are too a fairly decent extent, yes. However they are much smarter and better organized than the trolls are. They even have the same basic form of government of just a bunch of small tribes serving under a single ruler, with the sole expectation that instead of one centralized power there are at least five major power players controlling the continent. The Shinobi culture there is sort of like a mixture of Orc honor, Goblin greed, Troll voodoo, Night Elf druidism and shamanism and Human treachery."_

"**Sounds like a fun place to grow up." **Rokir remarked with a grin on his face, wondering a little when he would get a chance to see the place for himself. New lands to defile were hard to find after all.

"**It was." **Naruto answered, not really understanding what his former homeland was being compared too but getting pretty damn tired of being silent all this time.

"**That does explain why there isn't any Fel magic coming off of you… So if you don't have proper demons, how come your body has been tainted by an outside source?" **Rokir pondered aloud, wondering if doing so would get him an answer to that question.

Naruto started to scratch his head, trying to come up with an answer to that question himself. His grip on his own past was almost non-existent. He remembered how to perform jutsu, as well as some information that might help aid in a Scourge invasion of his former homeland. Everything else was either a blur or it was like looking at a scene being performed in a theater in which the acts didn't make a single noise and you've missed so much of the beginning that you have no idea what is going on…

The image of a giant fox like creature trapped inside of the biggest cage he had ever seen stuck in his mind rather strongly. Especially since it seemed to be hold closed (rather comically) by a single tiny piece of paper with the word 'Seal' written on it.

"**I'm not sure of the details, but I suspect that a giant fox like creature may have played a part in it." **Was all the blond could answer. With a short, sharp '**Tsk**' noise, Rokir started to shake his head in a disgusted manner.

"**Well, whatever tried to corrupt you did a piss poor job of it. It barely did any damage to your soul and the physical corruption was minimal at best." **

"_And this is a problem because?" _the Lich questioned, trying to get to the bloody point for once.

Rokir sighed at the stupidity surrounding him. If this had been a normal Cult member asking him these stupid questions he would have used them in some sort of dark ritual by now! (Maybe more if they were female) But he had a feeling that the master would disprove of him slaying two _currently_ valued members of the Scourge out of spite. Getting the King's disapproval was never a good idea if you wanted to continue existing in a way that didn't result in you screaming in agony for the rest of time.

"**This is a problem, **_**Lich**_**,**** because the runt isn't tainted enough in body or mind to truly use the unholy magic running through him to the best of his abilities. If you want him to be even halfway decent with even the most basic of necromantic spells, you're going to have to change something in him. Until then, I'm not even going to bother wasting my time teaching him crap he wouldn't even begin to understand. Don't contact me again until you have at least got me something to damn well work with."**

Reaching into his left pocket, Rokir removed a small white stone that started to glow a bright green as he prepared to return to the front line he had been so displeased to have been ordered to leave for this disappointment.

Unable to contain his anger at the amount of insults that had been sent his way, Naruto finally screamed **"AND JUST HOW THE HELL AM I MEANT TO CHANGE MYSELF TO MEET YOUR STANDARDS YOU COCK SUCKING ASSHOLE?" **

If Naruto had said this just a moment sooner, Rokir would have been able to cancel his teleportation out of there and shown the little prick a vital lesion in respect (Most likely the last the blond would ever learn). However, unable to stop it at this late stage, all the unholy rider of the Scourge could yell back was **"FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE SHIT!" **before vanishing in a blinding sickly green light.

_**AN: I am so happy that this chapter is at an end. I have rewritten it so many times I just want to post it and move on to the next one in order to make up for the delays. I was going to have Naruto learn the unholy arts in this chapter, but I decided against it at the last minute. Instead, he will be learning both Unholy and Blood magic in the same chapter. Awesomeness is assured.**_

I've also had a small idea that has been pecking at me for a while now. Anyone who knows Sage of Seals has no doubt read 'Naruto reads Naruto', a story on which the characters of Naruto get a chance to read some of the many fan fiction stories about themselves. (It's a damn good read, I advise you to look for it.)

_**I have recently thought about starting a thread sort of like this, only to cover the Warcraft /Naruto stories (I would say all crossovers, but I have to start somewhere, right?). I am just interested to see what everyone else thinks of this project and if any other authors might want to be a part of it. **_

_**Thank you for your time. **_

_**Goodnight everybody!**_


	6. Chapter Six: Gravedigging

**AN: First off, I would like to thank CaptainPrice, Krulk, narutofan020, karthik9, Drake0x and** **firelordeg as well as all the people who added this story to their alert lists or favorite stories (But somehow didn't have enough time to write up a simple review. It isn't like it would have killed them to do so... unless somehow it would, in which case your excused.) **

**Krulk brought up an interesting question that I felt needed a public address. Where, oh where is Dark Naruto? (You know the one. The one that took part in what could have been a kick ass fight scene but instead we got some stupid sun shine and rainbows bull crap. I think I even saw a cute little kitten whose head exploded into candy in the background. )**

**As far as I can tell, Dark Naruto is the mental part of Naruto (That was kept buried by said blonde) that never forgot all the crap that happened to him and never forgave those who wronged him. That understood that the people around him were two faced lying bustards who would turn on him in a heartbeat if it suited their needs. **

**However, since Naruto currently doesn't have his memories, he is effectively something of a blank slate. What few memories that come though currently are being viewed from a third person perspective and as you can tell Naruto is now seeing just how bad his life really was. I have long held the belief that Naruto may be suffering from one of the worst cases of Stockholm syndrome I have ever seen, which blinded him to the reality of the situation. **

**This means that the horrific and brutally painful healing process can now begin! :P**

**Back to the point of this discussion; without his memories, Naruto has no recollection of his past torments. Without the internal turmoil that these torments caused, Dark (Or Yami) Naruto cannot exist in the blond teens mind. We might see him down the track though. **

**Any who, on with the show. **

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet): **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King: "_**Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge.**

**Chapter Six: Grave Robbing for business and pleasure. (Or) How to make friends and piss off enemies.**

_"Why do people worship and pray to the light?"_

_"This might seem like a silly question at first but when you really start to think about it the subject gets complex rather quickly." _

_"For instance, when did worship of the light begin? And for that matter why did it begin in the first place?"_

_"History has taught us that if the 'holy' magic's started anywhere, it would have been with the night elves over ten thousand years ago. After all, that is when all schools of magic began in some form or another. But there was no god or goddess of the light, no rituals done in order to please it or show that you were worthy of its gifts. It just sort of took the backseat when compared to the other magic based schools during that period of time__.__ Hell, the moon got worshiped more back then than the light was." _

_"So what changed? What happened that caused such a lowly school of magic to gain a cult following and wars fought in its name?"_

_"One word: Fear."_

_"Much like how the Order of the Silver Hand was given unlimited support against the Orcish hordes, fear drove the early members of mankind to the light in order to find answers too what it couldn't understand and to destroy it in a blaze of holy fire in exchange for living a 'pure' (Ha) life. For all that repenting, self-torturous guilt and slaughtering heretics and infidels, those who followed the light were offed the 'promise' of salvation." _

_"But does it really give what it promises? Ghosts are often hunted down and forced away from the world before they can be questioned about the afterlife, the few times they have been questioned offering little and the 'holy' light forbids the practice of the 'unholy' arts of voodoo and necromancy, the only magical arts that allows contact with those who have successfully passed on to the other side, whatever that may be."_

_"Maybe speaking to the dead is only considered taboo because it is the only way to uncover the horrible truth about the light; that there is no salvation, there is no paradise for following the path of the light to its often gruesome and painful end. That all it is a sick joke, some slick scam designed for no other reason than to control the sheep like masses."_

_"At least with when you serve the Lich King, you know what you are getting into." _

_"For starters, you can physically see and touch our god, as well as bear witness to the glories of our eternal rewards for our loyal devotion. I don't know about you, but the peace of mind of knowing that your object of worship and the rewards for your loyalty really exist adds a great deal of creditable as far as faith is concerned." _

_"What has the light ever really offered us? A little bit of healing here, a small blessing there. A bonfire every now and then when a heretic is captured and tortured before being burned at the stake. That's about it." _

_"And what have we given it in returned for the poor excuses that it calls 'gifts'? They want to build a church, so we give them prime land that could be used for farming. They want to give speeches about how everyone is an unworthy maggot and we all have to sit there with our heads bowed in submission and take it. And if they want money... Good lord do they get it._ _" _

_"Collectively, the churches dedicated to the worshiping of the light rake in tens of thousands of gold pieces a year, completely tax free, and they always need you to give them a little more. Do they use this money to help the poor or help pay for the war effort? Do they feed the damn stuff to the light in order to give it that golden glow on the rare occasions they cast spells?" _

_"Hell no! Those bustards are using it to make their own lives easier. Too make their big, non-flea ridden beds that little bit more comfortable or to purchase a bigger roast hog for the weekly feast." _

_"The Cult of the Damned might do many things, but I can promise you now that we will never have to resort to hanging people so by their thumbs in order to do something so low as to bleed money out of them."_

_"We have higher standards than that."_

_~Early recruiting speech given by Cult of the Damned heralds during the second recruitment drive for the Cult of the Damned. Popular opening speech communing known as the "What the hell has the Light done for us lately?_"_ speech. ~_

...

**Hidden somewhere in the Land of Rice, in an underground chamber.**

Time was almost up...

It was rather annoying how it seemed like only yesterday that he had just taken over his current mortal vassal only to blink and suddenly find himself needing a new host body soon. But Orochimaru forced himself to tolerate such minor hardships for one reason and one reason alone.

He was on the verge of successfully completing his body swapping technique. Every time he performed the jutsu the results were always that little bit better, the body lasting that little bit longer then last time. He was quite confident that Sasuke would be the last body he would need to take in such a fashion before he would finally have a body that would last forever; that he would never have to worry about decaying past his peak ever again.

While Sasuke had truly met all expectations and even gone above and beyond what the snake sannin had originally planned to teach his future host body, he hadn't been the first choice for his final body. That honour should have gone to his strongest and most dedicated follower, Kimimaro. The plan to use Sasuke as the host body had been a quickly thrown together plan B from the start.

The original plan had been to lure Sasuke to his service with the promise of enough power to overpower and slay his older brother in combat, only to betray him and scientifically combine the Kaguya bloodline in his planned host body with the Uchiha bloodline in Sasuke, creating what might have been the strongest bloodline the world had ever seen...

But fate cruelly ruined this plan when Kimimaro fell ill... Such is life, he supposed.

Thinking of the deceased Kimimaro, the snake sannin smiled despite the pain that told him that time was running out for this body. While he had been unable to recover the remains of what had once been his strongest follower due to his final technique more or less entombing him in a razor sharp forest of bones miles across, for this same reason no one else had been able to get a hold of his body either.

Before his mind could continue to wonder down this road of thought, the bed ridden Orochimaru lifted his head in order to make eye contact with his new number one agent. "Any news to report on the location of our missing Naruto, Kabuto?" the older then he appeared sannin asked in a tone that reminded the listener of a vipers hiss.

Kabuto respectfully bowed to the one man on the planet that he had any real respect for, placing the one potential clue to the whereabouts of the missing container of the nine tailed fox on the ground in front of him. "Our agents report that Naruto has been declared dead by Konoha shortly after he went missing when his name was found crossed off of the frog summoning contract. However, no body has been discovered and only recently did one of our teams locate anything like a clue as to the identity of the container's attackers."

Orochimaru had been expecting the first part of Kabuto's report; mostly because he had already been given that trickle of information a couple of times already from three different people. While Kabuto was a trusted servant, he wasn't going to trust all of his incoming information reports to a single person. Hell, he had people whose only task was to watch the people who reported to him to ensure that they didn't try to cover up anything important.

The news about the identity of Naruto's attackers was new though.

"Kabuto, you have my undivided attention. Enlighten me. Who finally brought an end to the jinchūriki of the nine tailed fox? Who finally killed Naruto Uzumaki?"

Kabuto, for his part, looked rather uneasy. He hid it expertly behind a cold but amused mask of indifference that would have fooled a lesser being who had spent the same amount of time with the silver haired medical ninja as Orochimaru had. "I am rather afraid that we have been unable to come up with a match on any data base as of yet... In fact after all the tests at my disposal that I've used so far, I cannot help but admit that all I've found is more questions than answers."

Leaning forwards in order to have a look at just what it was that his assistant and student had brought him, Orochimaru's yellow snake like eyes landed on what the narrow minded would call a morbid prize.

In front of his most valued lackey lay a severed arm that was encased in armour whose design he had never born witness too before, made out of a metal that was completely alien to him. He couldn't tell how he knew, but there was something dark about this thing... something tainted by a force that he didn't recognise in the slightest... and his mind was already having fun coming up with places to start his research on it. Still, he might as well find out what his sub-ordinates had discovered so far...

"Then start at the beginning Kabuto. Where did we come across this... item of interest?" The unnaturally pale shinobi questioned. Standing on the stable ground that knowing the answer to the question offered, Kabuto was quick to calm himself internally before answer.

"One of our undercover teams discovered it buried under the brunt rubble of a farm house that was reportedly Uzumaki's last known location. While they were able to slip it past the everyday ANBU squads that had also been searching the area without drawing too much attention to them, the Root agents that had more or less unofficially locked the area down proved problematic. Only one of our people made it to one of our safe houses alive where he died shortly afterwards from his injuries, but he was alive long enough to pass the information and the item of interest along. Heeding his warning about Root being after him, the team at the safe house abandoned it at soon as possible, taking everything of value and destroying everything they couldn't take with them. They were the ones who managed to get this too us."

Nodding his head in understanding, Orochimaru simply answered "Good. They have all served me well..." Pausing for a few seconds as if in silent debate with himself, the snake like human being smiled as he ordered "Kabuto, fetch me my wheel chair."

"Sir?" was the somewhat surprised answer that Kabuto gave. He knew that his master was currently suffering from the body that was currently playing host to him finally rejecting him, but even then Orochimaru tended to have too much pride to ask for help doing the few things that demanded that he leave the bed. To have him ask for the wheelchair was huge too the silver haired medic.

"You heard me Kabuto. Fetch me my wheelchair. We will continue this conversation where it should have begun; in my laboratory. You can tell me exactly what you've found out so far about our mystery arm on the way."

...

**Scholomance, Western Library/ Study area. **

It had been a grand total of four days since the encounter with Rokir.

Taking the elder death knights parting words in stride, Amal'thazad had informed Naruto that, since they were currently staying at one of the largest and greatest schools in the world that was infamous for hording scourge related artefacts and housing the largest collections of magical texts dedicated to the black arts with the majority being in the arts of necromancy and other death magic's, this would be the perfect place to perform some research and discover the best possible way to unlock the unholy monster that was locked inside, waiting to break out and maim other people.

Thus began Naruto's stay in the library. Not being distracted by the need to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom the blond was able to take full advantage of the twenty four hour banks of knowledge that were now at his disposal. He would admit that quite a number of theories and ideas were quite difficult to understand at first since he didn't know the basics that were required in order to understand what he was reading but help in some shape or size was almost always around.

After all, he was not the only person who used the library. Cult of the Damned students, teachers and even the more educated undead beings who were currently staying or teaching at the Scholomance shared the library with each other almost twenty four hours a day. In fact, Naruto was pretty sure that even after four days there were still beings that had been using the room filled with what many considered forbidden knowledge for longer than he had.

The most notable of these people was Sarah. She was a cult member who was on the road to her final exams. Naruto had spoken to her a couple of times, watched her perform a couple of rituals whenever he needed a physical demonstration or sometimes when she was just practising something on her own. The woman was in her late teens/ early twenties with dark ebon hair and the sharpest green eyes that Naruto had ever seen. The purple tattoos and eyeliner that was petty standard for cult of the damned members everywhere gave her a truly dark beauty.

She was also the main person that he went too whenever he needed something explained or shown to him. He was able to convince her to help him by suggesting that explaining things to him would not only aid her in remembering her stuff by reinforcing what she already knew as well as prepare her for the off chance that she was stuck in a teaching position. The other thing that Naruto had noticed about her was her voice. He wasn't sure what it was about it but it just seemed to inspire and encourage those around her. He wasn't the only one to notice either, since he had seen no less than four groups of two males speak to her over the past few days. She didn't speak about what they talked about, but Sarah just smirked with a knowing grin that truly did belong on the face of a prankster of sorts when asked.

However on the fourth day of his stay in the library Sarah was nowhere to be found, having gone off to perform her final test before being granted the gift of immortally through undeath along with nine of her other class mates. While he didn't exactly know what the test it was Amal'thazad was helping to oversee it.

Of course, Naruto's studies had brought with them memories of what he could only assume were his own school days. It was rather weird, since whenever he had one of these flashbacks he always witnessed it as a third person. The memories about his school years were also different from the ones before given the fact that they contained sounds. It was possible to listen to the conversations he had had with his old teachers... it was not a pleasant experience by any meaning of the word.

It had surprised him that out of all his school teachers, only the two at the end seemed to not hold some kind of bad blood against him and by then it was far too late. The damage had been done. The basics he was meant to have learned from the teachers before them were either tainted by the desire to see him dead, never explained clearly to him if he asked them what they meant or in some cases missing because he had been ordered out of the of room for some stupid, overcharged reason.

Such a negative learning environment had screwed over his living self-big time, no doubt having a major impact on the rest of his life. Still, this didn't stop him from respecting the last two teachers for trying their best to undo the damage that their peers had caused. All the memory really did at the end of the day was make him further question why he had died to protect the way of life of people who hated his guts for no reason to the point that they were willing to sabotage his education in order to get him killed.

Reading over what seemed like the thousandth scroll of unholy rituals that day (in reality it was twelve), Naruto was about to put the scroll down and find something else to do when the last ritual caught his attention. He read it, re-read it and continued to re-read it a number of times to ensure that he had understood every single detail, that he hadn't missed anything truly important that could bite him in the ass later.

In fact he was so engrossed in what he was reading he didn't notice the familiar figure floating just behind him.

"_Found something interesting Naruto?" _Amal'thazad asked, chuckling slightly in his hollowly, wisp like voice as the blond death knight jumped a little in surprise.

Naruto turned to the lich that had become a mentor and teacher to him and despite the small, mock glare he sent the bag of bones way the blond haired former shinobi greatly respected Amal'thazad and everything he had done for him so far. While he would admit that for the most part the lich left him alone to do his own thing, this was because there was very little that he could help him do for the time being. Whenever Naruto had a question or if there was something that he didn't fully understand, Amal'thazad was more than willing to dedicate his time to help him understand it.

Forgetting the ritual in his hands for a few moments, Naruto quickly asked the first question that came to his mind. **"So how did Sarah do on the test?"**

Blinking in what could have only been surprise for a second, the everlasting smile on Amal'thazad's seemed to become much more honest. "_She passed with flying colours. Out of her group of ten, only her and one other passed correctly. In fact, she is the first one in six months to have earned the right to lichdom. Ras Frostwhisper and Dark master Gandling are currently helping her set up the rituals needed for her ascension as we speak."_

It was now Naruto's turn to blink in shock. From what he had learned from Amal'thazad and the numerous books and scrolls he had read here, someone being raised into undeath as a lich was a rare but worthwhile occasion. **"That's great news!" **Naruto exclaimed gleefully. From what he had seen Sarah had earned her soon to be enacted promotion in the world. **"So has a lich name been selected yet or is everyone waiting for her to become one first?" **He asked as an afterthought.

He remembered reading in one of the texts he had gotten his hands on about Liches and how, when they ascended, they gave up their mortal name and were given a new one from those who performed the ritual. It was very rare for a lich to keep their own name with the only known one who had being the major-domo Kel'thuzad himself. He also remembered reading that once the new name was selected calling a lich by their old, mortal one was often considered quite a rude insult to them.

Amal'thazad thought about how to word his answer for a second before going with. _"Not just yet, but we can expect Lady Deathwhisper to take it the moment the ritual is finished. So what did you find that had captured your attention so much that you didn't hear me coming? " _

Remembering the scroll that he had forgotten about when he heard the good news about Sarah and quickly handed it over to his mentor, pointing out the last ritual written on it. **"Read that one and tell me what you think. " **

As the lich began to read what had gotten Naruto's attention, the blond briefly pondered something that no doubt should have caught his attention days ago. The scrolls, books and texts he had been more or less skim reading for days on end were all written in words that belonged to languages that he didn't know the names of, let alone had the right to be able to understand without having to learn them. This confused him for a moment or so before he simply accepted that it must have been like the ability to wield any weapon he laid his hands on like a master who had a lifetime of practise without evening having to know what the damn weapons name was to begin with.

Just another benefit of being a death knight, he guessed.

With the deceptive slowness of lava, a look of understanding crossed Amal'thazad's face as he re-read the ritual that his current student/ future colleague had taken an interest in. He had to admit that the idea showed great promise and would be more than enough to serve their needs. It would be a simple matter to track down a holy site in order to take full advantage of this; you could barely swing a dead cat around without hitting something other people considered holy.

There was only one tiny flaw that wasn't so much a flaw as a need for careful planning. A vital ingredient was missing that needed to be selected carefully.

"_No doubt that it shows promise, but we need to select the right corpse for the task. "_ The lich explained, looking over the ritual one more time to make damn sure that he hadn't missed anything vital himself. Taking where his student had come from and his abilities had not escaped his notice either. _"There is also the fact that we have no idea how using this on you will affect you 'charka'if we used, say, a warlocks corpse. I have to ask, but do you already have someone in mind or are we going to have to do a lot of research on the matter?"_

Truthfully, Naruto had two primary candidates in mind already, both of whom would not only give him new abilities to use at his command but they would also reinforce his death knight abilities dramatically. The only real decision that needed to be made at the moment was whose body was he planning to recover first? The loyal friend who he felt had made a powerful impact on his life or the zealot like enemy who one couldn't help but admire the dedication of. It was a truly hard call and Naruto didn't really know which one to go after first.

Reaching into a hidden pocket of his armour, Naruto removed a golden coin that had been given to him for reasons that still weren't completely clear to him. While the gold in the coin might have been worth something back in the Elemental Nations, he had been told that the coins were a type of currency here. He had merely accepted the fact that money was money and it was generally better to have some then none at all.

Looking at both sides of the coin, Naruto saw that one side had a decently imprinted emblem of some kind on it while the other either had a poorly imprinted human head with a crown or it was a fairly good picture but a rather ugly king... if it was the latter, he doubted the artist behind this suddenly found themselves with a bleak and uncomfortable life. Royalty rarely appreciated honesty if it pictured them in a poor light.

Flipping the coin, Naruto silently picked which side stood for what in his mind before the golden objected landed in the palm of his hand, ugly king face up. **"Amal'thazad, I want you to get a hold of as many shades as you can find a map of the Elemental Nations and kami help me, get ready to create a portal. We have some old friends of mine that we need to pick up."**

...

**A few miles away from the Valley of the End, the edge of the Bone Forest.**

A truly remarkable yet terrifying landscape, the Bone Forest of Konoha had suddenly appeared three years before in what was once long, flowing plains of grasslands that was often used by travellers and traders to cut off a days or so to get between the north of the Land of Fire to pretty much everywhere else in the country since it allowed them to bypass the forests the Land of Fire was famous for.

Only a tiny handful of people knew how the Bone Forest had been created and why. To the countless travellers and traders who had once used the fields for passage, the impassable, razor sharp bone spikes, spears and pikes that made up the Bone Forest were a sign from Kami himself that the land was cursed. The exact number of people who had attempted to find a way through the death trap and were never seen again would be forever unknown, since no one was willing to go in after their remains.

As a result, no one came this way anymore. Civilian, shinobi, birds and animals alike avoided this cursed, unnatural place like the plague on the landscape it was. Standing on the edge of the seemingly endless bone white, razor shape instruments of death while surrounded by undead creatures stood Naruto as he looked on indifferently. Oddly enough, he felt a little at home here.

While the memory of this place had been connected to a larger one that was kind of broken up and fuzzy at best, Naruto did know the secret of the Bone Forest. He knew how it was created and what still remained hidden in its depths. Despite the abilities and immortality he had been granted upon being raised from the grave, the reason he wasn't going into the forest itself to locate the remains of its creator was because he liked the feel of his flesh and muscle on his bones. Just because he could survive without them didn't mean that he really wanted too.

It was for this reason he had requested the usage of the shades. Ghost like creatures that while transparent suggested the blackness of the magic that had been used to give them form in undeath. He had selected them for this task because unlike him they didn't have a body that could be torn into tiny little pieces if they entered the Bone Forest, therefore avoiding the bone-white death that the cursed forest was infamous for. Also, despite the lack of body, Shades could interact with the physical world. It was a literal case of 'I can touch you, but you can't touch me'.

"**The body that you are looking for will be located somewhere near the middle of the Forest, either in pieces on the ground or sticking out of one of the larger bones. Because it has been exposed to nature for a couple of years, I fully expect it to be completely bone dry. When you locate the remains I want you to take the upmost care in bringing them back to us. Is that understood?" **Naruto ordered, looking from one shade to the next expectedly.

It was a rather strange situation when a Shade started to speak to you. They didn't exactly use words. Instead you sort of got the answer implanted directly into your head without having to go through your ears. It wasn't painful or anything (At least not to him) but it was rather... annoying. Thankfully the message this time was a short 'Yes sir' before the dozen or so creatures of shadow phased through the bones that would have sliced a human being who tried to do something like that in two.

It was now only a matter of time until they found what he was looking for. While he may not have remembered the name of the person they were sent to collect, you don't just forgot someone who can use their own spine as a kick ass sword.

Taking a seat and turning to Amal'thazad, Naruto decided that now would be as good a time as any to get a question out of the way that had been bugging him for a little while now. He had asked it once before but the lich had simply answered that the walls have ears and that he wouldn't attempt to make things easier for those who didn't deserve such treatment. Since they were out in the middle of nowhere and they had time to kill, he might as well ask again.

"**So what **_**exactly**_** is the final exam for Cult of the Damned members?" **The blonde asked, capturing Amal'thazad's attention once more. Despite the fact that they were in the middle of nowhere, the lich looked around anyway as if out of an old habit before answering.

"_When students come to the Scholomance to study, they are grouped together in classes of ten. For the entire length of their studies, their group will only have those ten people in it. If someone flees the school for some reason or more likely, dies, their spot isn't filled by anyone else. Three days before their final exam, the remaining members of a class are brought together and told just what the final exam is. Unless there is only one left alive in the class to begin with, one of their number has to undergo a ritual that will kill them and raise them as a shade. Everyone left standing after the ritual receives a blessing from the powers that be, but the fewer that are left means that the blessings for those that remain are stronger." _With his explanation finished, the lich watched as Naruto tried to work out what the true meaning of the test was.

Taking his time to think over just what the intention of the test was, Naruto did one of the few the few stills of he had had when he was alive that had gotten much better in undeath; looking underneath the underneath. In a way it was sort of like a twisted version of a teamwork test. At first glance it seemed like the whole point of the school system was to (other than teaching the students dark magic) get them to know each other, befriend each other, then have them all kill each other and see who can twist the knife when push comes to shove; but there was more to it than that.

The first death, the needed death, seemed more like a sacrifice for the greater good than anything else. One death so the rest of the team could advance. It was the complete and utter opposite of what the first glance told you. But didn't the one who underwent the ritual get turned into a shade?

Looking at the lich, Naruto politely asked **"What happens to the Cult members who die but didn't undergo the self-sacrificing ritual?" **While he didn't need to answer, Amal'thazad did so anyway since his student was on the right trail of thinking. _"They either get raised as cannon fodder or have their bits and pieces used for any projects or rituals that need them."_

Slowly beginning to connect the dots, Naruto quickly figured out the true meaning of the ritual. It wasn't really intended to for the purpose of sacrificing one for the good of the many, although it could be interrupted that way. It was really giving those few cult members who knew that their skills wouldn't get them too far against their peers in the second part of the exam the chance to gain the reward of immortality without the risk of being turned into cannon fodder or spare parts.

After all, despite the somewhat weird method of communication Shades were rather useful creatures. As spies or recon units almost no creatures living, dead or somewhere in between could match the pure talents of the ghost like Shade. Unless you had set up your defences with the intention of dealing with Shades and the other ghostly creatures the Scourge (and too a somewhat lesser extent, the Forsaken) had to offer then you wouldn't even know they were there until they had seized you by the throat. Becoming such a creature was a wonderful thing when compared to being raised as a mindless zombie, whose sole purpose is to be a meat shield or test dummy for the higher ranked undead, I.E everyone.

So that could only mean that the purpose of the second part of the test was to see who were the strongest, fastest and smartest of the potential candidates by having them weed out the lesser ones. His answer selected, Naruto simply answered **"So the point of the exam is a survival of the fittest kind of thing?" **

Amal'thazad shook his head at the answer, confusing Naruto a little before the lich began to explain _"You are not that far away from the truth. While the second part of the exam is a no holds barred survival of the fittest battle between the members of a class with the rewards of graduating depending on being one of those left standing at the end, exactly what the reward is depends strongly on how you came about being one of those still standing."_

When Naruto tilted his head a little more in confusion, the lich sighed slightly as he tried to come up with the best possible way to explain the situation. _"Let us use the future Lady Deathwhisper's exam from today as an example. Three days ago when the terms of the exam were given, we had those who were going to undergo it watched at all times by shades and a couple of other means in order to discover what the students were plotting and scheming in order to ensure that they would be among those who were still breathing long enough to earn their just reward. Only two members of the class didn't fall into some sort of faction. One of them was Sarah while the other one accepted publicly from the start that he would be the one who underwent the ritual because there was no way in hell that he would last long against his peers."_

"**It sounds like whoever the shade guy was suffered from a rather severe no confidence problem." **Naruto stated bluntly, finding the idea of taking the easy way out to be distasteful. _"To be honest, it was the best move John could have made." _The lich responded, not liking getting off track but feeling the need to explain things anyway. _"John wasn't a bad student. He was slightly above average in his studies and got along fine with his teachers. However everyone else in his class was recognised as prodigies of the dark arts of magic. Even if he had sided with one of the factions and somehow survived the battle to the death between the factions, his allies would most likely have just killed him anyway so that they didn't have to share power with the weakling. It is seen as a sign of wisdom to understand when it is time to accept what you are assured to get rather than risk your future on what you know is out of your reach." _

"_Over the course of the three days, as I know you noticed, each faction at one point or another approached Sarah with the offer to have her join them so they could overcome the others. Instead of saying yes to just one of them, she agreed to side with all of them on the condition that they keep their alliance a secret until the exam itself was underway. So when the exam began and all the factions turned on each other, Sarah was out of the crossfire because everyone else believed that she was on their side. So she had all the time in the world to prepare her chosen spell and killed the lot of them in a single bloody stroke. With her talents with convince others to do what she wished, her power in magic and even her teaching ability when working with you proved that she was a worth candidate for lichdom." _

Naruto was rather shocked by the turn of events that helped his friend reach one of the heights of power that all members of the cult crave. He asked himself why Sarah would turn on all of her potential allies and the answer hit him like a pink hair bipolar banshee who was as flat as a cat run over by a wagon. **"They were all going to betray her when they didn't need her anymore, weren't they?" **he asked allowed, frowning when he saw Amal'thazad nod his head. _"The very second that all the other factions were dealt with, they were all planning on dealing with Sarah as well. She merely didn't give them the chance to do so."_

Nodding his head silently in agreement, Naruto looked back at the Bone Forest and wondered just how much longer the shades were going to take. Deciding that the conversation needed to continue after a few moments, Naruto couldn't help but ask **"So how did you become a lich then?"**

Amal'thazad glanced at Naruto for a moment and truly did ponder if he should tell him the whole story or just enough to keep him happy. After a few moments of internal debate, he decided to keep his secrets to himself. _"Almost exactly the same as Sarah did, barring one or two trivial details that were slightly different." _

Before he could question just what those 'trivial' details were, Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by what only could be described as the experience of triumph without it necessarily being your own. Turning towards the Bone Forest, Naruto's gaze was lured upwards by the gathering of shadow like shades coming towards his and Amal'thazad's location, carrying something along with them.

As the wraith like creatures put down their bounty, Naruto couldn't help but frown at the state of the bone wielders earthly remains. While he wasn't surprised that the only thing that was left of him were bones (Giving one of them a slight squeeze he was surprised at the fact that it was still stronger than any metal he could care to name) but the amount of bones left were worrying. All that they had managed to locate was the spine, ribcage and the left and right shoulders and the right arm. There was nothing else. **"Is this all?"**

Images of finding the bones from the waist up hanging out of one of the bigger, sharper bones flashed through Naruto's mind. They had been able to remove what was sticking out but everything below the waist was gone. The left arm had been little more than a giant spear made of bone and the moment that they got the body free it disconnected at the shoulder, plummeting to the ground and embedding itself so deep into the earth and rock that they couldn't pull the damn thing out again. The skull had simply not been there when they arrived. They had looked all around for the damn thing but wherever it was now they had no clue and that they were really sorry if he was upset with them and to please not hurt them too much.

Amal'thazad didn't like where this was going. Most death knights he knew or had known at one time or another had been real hard arses when it came to their sub-ordinates following their orders to the letter. He knew for a fact that if it had been Bloodbane standing with him right now this group of shades would be banished from the world of the living so fast that when they turned up where ever they go when ghosts die they wouldn't have known what the hell happened to them.

For a few seconds, the world held its breath as the threat of a high ranking servant of the Scourge losing their cool and unleashing their fury became almost a certainty. So it was with much surprise and shock that Naruto simply bowed his head and said **"Thank you for doing this for me. You've done a good job."**

The shock was like a bolt of lightning, slowing the world around it to a standstill while filling it with shock and surprise. Even when the moment passed for the rest of the world those surrounding Naruto continued to stare at him as if he had just suggested that the Lich King went to bed in a pink nightie two sizes two small with a stuffed toy rabbit named 'Mr Fufflykins'. The shock was so thick that you could have cut it into slabs and used it as a cheap building material.

Things continued like this until Naruto started to feel a little awkward and started to rub the back of his neck before he just had to ask **"Why are you all staring at me like that?"**

It was the Shades who answered first, the exact way they expressed their concerns difficult to understand with images and sensations but ultimately being summed up into two different but related sentences: 'Why aren't you punishing us?' and 'You said Thank you. No one ever says thank you to us.'

While he gave it a hell of an effort, a lot of the messages got jumbled in Naruto's head and simply didn't make a lick of sense to the blond. Amal'thazad understood it perfectly however and decided to translate it into words his student could understand. _"They are wondering why you haven't lost your temper at them for failing to bring back all of the body and are completely in shock because you said thank you to them."_

"**Why should I be mad at them? It wasn't their fault that the body was in the condition it was in when we arrived and they did their best to bring us as much of it as they could. Sure we might have been able to do something with the spear arm or whatever it was, but if things work out like they are meant to it won't really matter in the slightest if we have it or not." **Naruto explained, calming the shades down a little but still a little worried about the situation. **"Besides, they did a good job and they deserve my thanks for that. I couldn't have done it without them."**

Amal'thazad had started out as a member of the Cult of the Damned and after that had the pleasure and honour of joining the Scourge as a lich. He had seen and done things that would either sicken or driven lesser mortals insane just by witnessing with an iron stomach and for the confirmed promise of immortality. But what he was seeing before him with his very eyes, feeling with his very mind was by all rights impossible.

The Shades, in their own telepathic way, were expressing respect. Respect was something that was often hard earned in the Scourge and was only really valued if it was one of the members of the inner circle that was giving it. It was for this reason alone that almost all members of the Scourge and the Cult of the Damned tended to kiss up to their superiors. When it came to dealing with the lower ranks of the undead things tended to get a lot uglier. When it came to dealing with the lower orders, niceties and politeness where almost always certain to be among some of the first casualties, followed shortly by mutual respect.

Death knights of any rank, when dealing with lower ranked undead, often bypassed the often long a tedious road to mutual respect and simply used fear to install a sense of loyalty into their underlings. Nothing ensured loyalty faster than the very real threat of an enraged death knight if you messed up.

While it was a truly rare event for a death knight to inspire any sort of legitimate respect without the use of creative, deadly and often painful brute force, the fact that Naruto was respected the shades in turn made Amal'thazad open his mouth so wide in surprise and shock that his jaw hit the ground. He didn't know what was going on inside Naruto's head, but it felt like some universal law of the Scourge that no one had ever written down or explained to anyone else had just been broken. He was half expecting the Lich King himself to pop out from behind a tree and slaughter everyone there just to prove a point.

While the lich was glancing around at the different trees with a great deal of caution, he didn't notice Naruto glancing at him, then at the ground, then over to one of the shades with a questioning look in his eye. The shade in question nodded before drifting over to the piece of ground that Naruto had looked at, recovering the bottom half of Amal'thazad's jaw and offering it to the lich in question silently.

Giving a small chuckle at the situation, Naruto grinned widely as he announced **"Amal'thazad, while I get our cargo ready for transport I want you to put your damn jaw back in and get a portal ready to take us to our second destination." **Muttering under his breath as he walked over to the pile of bones that he needed to get ready to transport, Naruto almost sadly said to himself **"It's time for me to meet up with an old friend…"**

…..

**The Land of Waves, the Graves of Zabuza Momochi and Haku (Last name unknown.) **

Three years… It had been over three years since Naruto had stood in this spot in front of the grave of his first true friend. He had promised that he would come back and visit but things had just gotten so damn busy… Just standing here in silence brought back more memories then Naruto cared to remember about his first week or so away from the academy. While he remembered the early days of team seven quite well, all Naruto could do was frown as the past danced its terrible dance before his eyes.

While they were slightly more pleasant than his school days, what positive things could anyone claim happened in these early days of his training? His teammates were some emotional brat that seemed to hate or detest everything around him, the bloody flat chested living banshee with pink hair and they were all stuck with a teacher who was too damn busy reading pornography or 'walking the path to life' to teach them anything.

He didn't know what bullshit this was, but it sure as hell wasn't training him to be prepared to take a life without hasting. This wasn't getting him prepared for life as a government paid mercenary whose very life and profession relied on being able to commit murder just because someone is paying you to do so. They should have been spending every waking hour around the clock perfecting their fighting styles or learning how to best use their abilities instead of hunting down a stupid fucking cat that kept running away from its owner.

And what made it all worse was that the one eyed, constantly late pornographic reading fucktard knew that their combat styles were flawed. He knew their weaknesses and strengths, hell he had even gone as far as to tell them just what they should be doing to best work together as a team. And then he did nothing about it; absolutely nothing at all. The prick never even mentioned it again after that first stupid 'bell test' was over and done with.

If this was the standard education of Shinobi, Naruto honestly had to ask himself how the hell he had lived as long as he did. When the Scourge raised even the most simplistic of mindless undead zombies they were at least kind enough to give the zombies basic combat training (Teeth go bite, claws go slash) it wasn't much but it still gave them a better chance of survival then he had back then.

Sweet Lich King in Icecrown, by all rights he should have been the one buried here, not Haku…

"_Sorry to interrupt…whatever it is you are doing, but would you care to start before someone comes along?" _Amal'thazad's voice requested, interrupting Naruto's flashbacks and returning him to the here and now. While the tombstones themselves looked well maintained and looked after, he suspected that not many people came up here. The evidence presented by the weeds growing around the tombstones suggested that those that did come up here didn't do so often.

They wouldn't be coming here today at any rate. It was raining like it was going out of season and they needed to clear out the current supply of cats and dogs before they could get new ones. It wasn't that windy though and after his stay in the frozen death that was Icecrown itself some heavy rain was nothing to the blond.

After waiting for what he considered to be a respectful amount of time, Naruto stuck his shovel into the dirt that covered Haku's remains. When he had set the Shades to ensure that they got a clear warning if anyone was coming here, one of them had returned with a shovel it had 'borrowed' from one of the local farmers before returning to its duty.

While Amal'thazad had disapproved of the disobeying of orders, Naruto was actually quite happy to have the farming tool to help him with his task. If he had wanted too, he could have created clones to speed things up. He didn't. Digging up Haku alone felt…right to him. While it was generally discouraged in the Scourge to show restraint when it came to digging up dead bodies, Naruto whole life had been heavily impacted by the what he could honestly call the first true friend he had ever had. Sure he might have had other friendships after Haku that could have been greater or at least lasted longer (Not that hard, all things considered) the ice using shinobi was the first.

Besides, if anyone asked him later he could always say that he didn't want to cause any more damage to corpse then had already been done.

For a long time the only sounds in the little makeshift graveyard were Naruto's shovel hitting and removing dirt and the noise of the mist that kept Amal'thazad floating moving about. Neither of them said anything to the other.

While the whole 'Holy/Unholy' thing was a grey area for the Scourge (That was a darker grey but a grey none the less, Amal'thazad recognised that the act of digging up this body was very important to the blond and thus kept his mouth shut while looking around at the dreary he was currently in. From time to time his eyes were drawn to the large and important looking sword that was sticking out of the grave next to the one they were digging up.

While he understood the tradition of burying legendary weapons with their wielders, the lich couldn't help but find it amusing that if this grave was located across the sea somewhere on a different landmass, regardless of what defences or where it was hidden, someone who have nicked the sword in the three years since the wielder was buried.

When Naruto struck the remains of Haku, there was no excited cheer or heart felt sob. He was completely neutral as he brought the few none damaged bones and rotten organs he needed from the body with a great deal of care not to touch or disturb anything anymore then he needed too. Placing the remains of Haku in a sack that was slightly darker than the one they had kept the bone users remaining bones in, Naruto began to fill the grave back in with care and silence.

It was only when Naruto was patting the dirt down with the shovel to level it out that he said anything at all. **"Summon the shades and get the portal ready. We've gotten everything we came here…" **Before he finished his sentence, Naruto's eyes landed on the Kubikiribōchō; Zabuza's 'Decapitating Carving Knife'. After a few seconds of what could only have been some sort of internal debate, the blond death knight reached out and took the swords handle, lifting it out of the grave with unholy ease.

Giving the blade a few test swings, Naruto nodded to himself as a smile came to his face before looking back at his mentor. **"We've got all that we came here for. Summon the shades and let's get out of here. Do you have a location to perform the ritual in mind?" **he asked, looking right at the lich as the bone constructed spell caster smiled the everlasting grin of his kind.

"_I already have a place in mind. And since it is located in the Plaguelands we don't even need to take a portal out of the Scholomance."_

**AN: Forty Thousand words baby! The big 40000! As of this point it is the bar I would have to top for any future stories I might right (God help me.) **

**Now I know I promised that Naruto would unlock blood and unholy in this chapter; I had fully intended to do this. However, since this is such a long chapter (Officially the longest chapter I have ever written. The former record holder being chapter one of this very story at 7,522 words**) **and the next part I have planned is no doubt going to be a long chapter in its own right when I get around to writing it, I decided to upload this one now so I don't completely overwhelm readers later. Besides, I need to update more often anyway.**

**While I have a few key events planned for the length of this story (And boy will they be good ones) I still need some filler hunks of junk to throw in so I can keep the story timeline somewhat realistic. If you have a suggestion or an idea, send me a Pm or leave it in the reviews. After I get the next chapter up and running I will make a poll to see which idea people like the best. **

**Now we move onto todays poll; Couples. **

**That's right. I am making a poll so we can finally figure out what direction this story will head in romantically when we are not too busy digging up graves or torturing and killing people. **

**Now this poll will be a little different than the normal ones like this. It will be held in stages.** **Stage one will simply consist of three categories. Cannon Naruto, Cannon Warcraft and Other. Cannon Naruto and Cannon Warcraft are easy enough to understand since that means if one of them wins the romantic interest will be an official character from their respective anime / game. If one of them wins the second poll will be a list of female characters that would fit the roll (Since Naruto is in a sense immortal in undeath, immortals like dragons will be listed.) **

**Other is simply an OC created for the story. If you vote for other, please submit a basic character template in the reviews. You don't have to do much, just a name, race, faction, age and an abridged personality. History and what they wear/look like are completely optional. **

**Example: **

**Name: Fawne**

**Race: Green Dragon**

**Faction: Green Dragons**

**Age: Two hundred and twelve (212) (I'm guessing drakes become dragons at 200. Correct me if I am wrong.)**

**Personality: Kind, Nature loving, honourable. **

**See how easy that was? Took me a grand total of twenty seconds to think that up. I do have to request you be realistic with your OC's and don't submit something stupid. If I deem it stupid I will reject it on the spot. **

**In the last chapter, I believe I threw the idea of having a combined effort by authors to create a thread where Naruto and Warcraft characters will be politely given the chance (AKA forced too) to see how others view them by letting them read the fanfictions about themselves. CaptainPrice has already submitted his support for the idea and I am glad to have it. **

**If any other authors wish to join in on the project or, better yet offer their stories to be fanfictions that the characters read, please contact me. **

**This is Kiue Jin, signing off on his first ever 10,000 word chapter. **

**Goodnight everybody! **


	7. Chapter Seven: Rituals and you!

**Disclaimer: If you haven't figured** **out that I don't own Naruto or World of Warcraft by this point, I should be allowed to sue you every time you have another dumbass kid who brings down the overall IQ of humanity.**

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet): **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King: "_**Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge**

**Chapter Seven: Rituals and You; How to banter your soul for worthwhile profits.**

_Rule Number 1: When you are making a pact or deal with any breed of dark entity, do NOT agree to or sign anything on the spot. Demand the deal be written down and then take said deal to at least three different and completely independent lawyers before signing your name on the dotted line. Dark entities are like Goblin Trade Princes when it comes to their deals; You might think you're getting everything you ever wanted only to get screwed over through loop holes and fine print. _

_Rule Number 2: When making any sort of deal or pact with any sort of entity (Not necessarily a dark one at that) NEVER offer them anything you do not already have ownership of! I've lost count of just how many times I've had to repeat this to people. Yes, offering a demon every single soul in a town or city is a good way to get on their good side but if you promise big and cannot pay up… lets just say things will get nasty really damn quick and leave it at that. _

_Rule Number 3: Under no circumstances should you barter anything that you require the dark entities aid to get in the first place. It might seem tempting, but it is sort of like going to a loan shark in order to secure a loan to pay off an earlier loan to the same loan shark! Sooner or later it's going to come back and bite you in the ass. _

_Follow these simple rules and you will be able to get exactly what you asked for, not what you wanted. _

_~Three simple rules to selling your soul on the market. ~ _

**Eastern Plaguelands, Chapel of the Crimson Flame. **

It was a grand day for the Scarlet Crusade. The righteous had stood firm against the tides of evil and triumphed against it, the walls of the Scarlet Crusade standing firm against what many had once believed to be the unending storm of undead monsters and their traitorous sympathizers.

Naxxramas had vanished overnight. The bastion of the Scourge's evil, the center point of the Lich King's unholy grasp on the Plaguelands that had years before been their homeland had finally been broken as the Lich King's pet lich had finally been forced to turn tail and flee from the light's righteous wrath.

Bishop Street had been more than honored to hold an unscheduled sermon to inspire those brave souls who had fought day and night to bring this joyous day about. In fact, he was even going to go so far as to turn a blind eye to the minor vices that many of his flock were partaking in to help celebrate the momentous event even as he went about tidying up his chapel.

Of course, while he was more then willing to cut a little slack this one night due to the nature of the victory, that didn't mean he was going to go easy on them tomorrow. It didn't matter if they were hung over or not, the light's standards would be maintained at all times. It was also a fine chance to find the truly devote by weeding out the common muck that often joined their ranks. The Crimson Dawn was getting ever closer after all.

So it was with mild surprise that the Bishop heard the door to the Chapel open. Turning around and pausing in his dusting of the older, barely touched holy texts that no one really read anymore but were simply too holy to throw out ( They were completely outdated after all. They still promoted 'Forgiveness' for lights sake!), Bishop Street was caught off guard at the sight that was before him.

It was impossible to know every single living person living under the creeds and protection of the Scarlet Crusade. Last time anyone managed to do a census on their organizations numbers they recorded over twelve thousand members. However, despite this Bishop Street had always attempted to remember if not the names of his flock then at least their faces. It made remembering who was attending his sermons a lot easier.

He had never seen either of the two people who were entering his chapel in a respectful manner fitting of warriors of the light entering a holy place. The one on the left, the male one, had azure blue eyes with short and spiky blond hair. He also had what looked like whisker marks along his cheeks that appeared to be some kind of birthmark of sorts. He was even carrying the largest sword he had ever seen in his life on his back as if it was nothing. It was almost comical how large the sword was, but despite this the Bishop couldn't take his eyes off the second figure.

She was _female_. While that might have seemed like a stupid statement if you laid eyes on her you would be forced to admit that just by looking at you she took the word 'female' and smashed it into your brain like a silk covered brick. She was blond, her hair hanging in two pig tails while her azure blue eyes seemed to glow with warmth. Like the male next to her, she also had whisker like marks on her cheeks, suggesting that they were brother and sister.

It wasn't Bishop like to give into such a temperamental and misleading emotion as lust, but Street had to confess that the woman could wear the uniform in such a way that if they sent her to Stormwind on a recruitment drive they would be assured of a fruitful wave of new recruits for their cause. Sure they wouldn't be the most devote of the faithful but loyalty and faith could always be beaten in after they arrived. Plus, odds were that they would merely be deployed as fodder against the undead hordes anyway so they didn't need to be that faithful to begin with.

More as an afterthought then anything else, he noticed that the uniforms that the two siblings were wearing were the ones used by the western branch of the Scarlet Crusade. With a small but controlled questioning look, Bishop Street asked "May I help you my children?"

Surprisingly, it was the girl who stepped forwards and bowed first… the act of which suddenly made the Bishop wish he was a few years younger. "We hate to bother one as faithful as yourself on the eve of such a joyous occasion but when news reached our settlement about the major victory achieved here against the undead monsters, We spoke to our captain about my fears that this withdrawal was nothing more then an undead ploy to make the faithful lower there guard just long enough to launch a surprise offensive. He agreed with us right away and gave our unit the order to head here as quickly as possible to help hold the defenses here incase the worst happens."

This time, it was the man who stepped forwards, bow as low as his sister in respect but lacking the same kind of charm that she had… at least on other males anyway. "Our captain advised us that before we presented ourselves to her holiness the High General, we should speak to you and receive your blessing first, milord."

There was wisdom in both of their words. While he hadn't said anything aloud about such a thing, Street could understand how they could have easily come to the conclusion that the undead were planning something. Of course, the undead were _always _planning something but pulling back a major stronghold in order to lure the faithful into a false sense of victory in order to lower their guard?

It was so crazy that if they weren't careful the bastards might just pull it off.

"While I have to admire your captain's wisdom, I should take you to see the High General as soon as possible. I'm sure that she has already thought about what worries you and I'm sure that she would be thrilled to have a few more trustworthy men and women like yourself around in the days to come. Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to ask you your names." The Bishop said aloud, giving them the opening to introduce themselves.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The male answered without a second thought, the smile on his face seemingly beaming at the thought that someone as important as the Bishop was taking a personal interest in him.

"Naruko Uzumaki." The female followed, her smile matching that of her brother. At the questioning look the Bishop gave them, Naruko explained "When our mother was with child, her and dad decided that if she had a boy they would call him Naruto, but if they had a girl they would call her Naruko. When she had a mixed gender pair of twins they used both names."

His unasked question answered, Bishop Street smiled as he started to walk past the two Uzumaki's, both of them following in his footsteps. As he left the Chapel, Street gave both the guards who were standing either side of the door a polite nod in greeting which was returned in kind before moving on to the eight other strangers in Scarlet Crusader clothing, leading the group towards the Headquarters of the High General herself.

After the group left, the two guards shared a quick look with each other before leaving their posts and walking around to the right side of the building. After a few moments, the first one came back around, carrying two black sacks with the greatest care imaginable. Opening the door to the Chapel, he slipped inside as the second 'guard' appeared from around the corner, dragging two dead bodies that looked exactly like him and the man who entered the chapel moments before, the only difference being that their throats had been slit.

Dragging them into the building and closing the door behind him, the 'guard' dropped the henge around himself, Naruto shaking his head as he dropped both bodies on the ground with no ceremony what so ever as he looked over at his clone as it read over the scroll that contained the details of the ritual they had to perform. "**How many clones do you think we need for this?**"

The clone continued to read the scroll for a few moments more in order to get a firm idea of how much effort was going to be needed. "**Let's see… including us, we will need five more clones to perform the ritual itself, two more to take the place of the guards in order to keep people out while maintaining our cover… and three clones to check out the side building nearby. I don't want any surprises when we do this. Ten clones will suit our needs just fine.**"

Nodding his head in agreement, Naruto placed his hands together in a sign that was as familiar to him as walking or breathing. With a cloud of smoke that lasted a couple of seconds, ten exact replicas of himself were standing or sitting around the otherwise empty 'Chapel'. It had taken a little explaining to understand exactly whatever the hell a Chapel was and just why it was considered a holy place and Naruto was the first to admit that even now he didn't quite get the idea. Still, it would serve his purposes just fine.

"**Alright everyone, you know what you have to do. Let's get to work!**"

Right away, five of the clones brought their hands together before being hidden from sight by a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared five 'Scarlet Crusaders' stood in their places, two of them looking exactly like the men dead on the floor. Without a word they walked out of the Chapel in a line, the last one closing the door behind him as the real Naruto walked up to it and locked it behind the clone. Turning around and watching as the clones still with him began to swift the chairs and other objects out of the way in order to make room, he took an unneeded but not unwanted deep breath and went to go and help them out.

….

Less then twenty feet away from the Chapel, the three clones disguised as warriors of the Scarlet Crusade softly pushed open the door to check out exactly what was inside it. It was only after the door was opened that they discovered that the building had surprisingly good sound proofing. You couldn't even hear the screaming when you were standing next to the door.

Opening the door fully, the squad was surprised at the vast range of people that were in there. Humans, Orcs, Dwarfs, even a Tauren; the list went on. However, there were a few things that they all had in common. All of them had been stripped of clothing before being restrained in one way or another. Some were chained to the walls or floor, others were tied firmly to chairs or beds… all of them bore scars, burns and horrid looking fresh wounds. Some of them were still bleeding.

And at the centre of it all, tied to a table and crying her eyes out while screaming so loud that her shrill little voice was starting to go horse, was a small draenei girl tied to a chair. The cause of her screaming was easy to see; the man holding the red hot metal poker and jabbing it into her side was kind of hard to miss. In the corner of the room, in clear sight of what was happening in the centre was a rather distraught Draenei woman. Despite the fact that she seemed half starved and physically broken in a few places, that wasn't stopping her from trying with surprising might to break her own bounds and tear into the man holding the poker. "LEAVE HER ALONE DAMN IT! SHE DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING!"

The man simply laughed at the woman's distress, turning towards her and mockingly taunting her by saying "Well I would take your word for it but since you've been lying to me this whole time about where your loyalties are I'm afraid I can't trust your word, undead loving traitor! Your daughter however hasn't done anything to discredit herself yet. Maybe we can finally hear the truth from the voice of innocence, hmm?"

Watching as the man removed his instrument of torture and torment, the little girl continued to cry as he asked her in an overly sweet voice "Now dear, do you know what your mother was doing, wondering the roads of the Plaguelands?"

Slowly, the girl managed to softly say in between sniffles "W…We w…were looking to j…join the A…A…Argent Dawn."

There was a moment of silence, as if time itself was holding its breath. While they might not have been created by someone who was overly good at reading body language, even from behind the man the henged clones could feel the aura coming off the man. A lightning fast flash back brought up another memory just like it. The boss had been helping out the pink bans… no, banshee would have been an insult to the ghostly ladies… helping out the pink haired bitch do her runs of a mental ward.

The feeling the man was giving off, when put into words, could only be described as 'Watching a mental patients medication stop working while said mental patient was wielding a rather large knife'.

"CHOKE ON YOUR LIES YOU MONSTER LOVING WHORE!" the man roared at the top of his voice, ramming the poker back into the young girl's flesh and inciting screams from both her and her mother.

The clones, watching from the sidelines unnoticed, were trying rather hard to think about what they should do in this situation. They were feeling what could only be described as a spiritual conflict as their duty to the Lich King conflicted with… something else…Something that they couldn't exactly place but for some reason felt important.

_Okay. I know that my service to the Scourge demands that I kill everyone here. However, that seems like a complete waste of resources. I mean, these people have been tortured by this lunatic for who knows how long. That's not exactly going to make them friends of the Scarlet Crusade. In fact, this is the sort of thing that would inspire normally calm, level headed people to enraged violence; and if there was to suddenly be a prison break…_

Having sorted out just what needed to be done the lead Clone kicked the door closed rather loudly, surprising everyone in the room and causing the torturer to turn around. When the clones saw the look in the man's eyes, any lingering doubt that he was bat shit insane vanished. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The other clones step to the side, looking at their leader in order to give him the opening he needed to explain his plan. "We were sent by the High General to take over the interrogation of one of your prisoners. We have recently received some evidence of a full grown draenei woman being a plague spreader. One of your more recent… guests I believe. Would you mind pointing her out to us so we can get started?"

As he spoke, the clone moved forwards with a calm ease, as if he was used to doing this sort of thing on a day to day basis. By the time he had named the person of interest, he had already reached the fire pit that the pokers were being heated up in. He asked the question of the woman's location as he picked up one of the tools of torment and pain.

The overly zealous nut job, grinning from ear to ear at the announcement that he had been correct from the start about one of his clients that he turned around without a second thought and pointed to the mother of the girl he had been playing with moments before. "That's the bitch, right over Arghh!"

Much to the surprise of everyone there, most of all the torturer himself, the leader of the group of 'Scarlet Crusaders' had cut off the mad man who seemed to live for nothing other then to cause them horrible pain by taking the red hot poker in his hand and ramming it into the lunatics back, right into his heart. As the mans dying screams quickly faded and the only sound coming from him was that of the flesh around the burning hot metal sizzling as it was cooked, the lead clone turned to his two subordinates and ordered "Come on, help me get these people loose."

While there was some confusion as to what was going on, the only things that the various peoples being held captive really needed to know was that 1) Their torturer was dead and 2) They were being freed by the people who ended him. While there were a couple of questions as to who exactly they were, the clones wisely didn't answer them in the slightest.

After a quick look around in the crates and cupboards in and around the side hut of horrors, some weapons, clothing and food were located. The food didn't last long, as the starved prisoners consumed it like ravenous locusts, but the weapons and clothing were handed out with a bit more care.

"You sure you don't want to come with us?" the orc male who was now wielding a rather large and deadly looking battle axe asked, the bloodlust in his eyes hard to ignore. The lead clone simply shook his head no. "I'm afraid not. Our little organization still has a few things to do here before we can bug out. Now our people are in control of the Chapel so you should be able to go passed it without any trouble, provided you don't try to attack the place. After that, you're on your own. Any Scarlets you see after that point are legit and would happily see you dead."

The message sent, the prisoners (Most of who belonged to the Argent Dawn of all things) nodded in understanding. "I…Is there anything I can do to repay you for saving my daughter?" The draenei woman asked, holding her daughter lovingly in her arms since the girl wasn't in a condition to walk anywhere.

The clones looked at one another for a moment, as if questioning what they could ask for in return when the lead clone answered for them easily enough "Don't worry about it. We didn't save her expecting a reward. We stepped in because the man torturing you was a nut case and needed to be put down like the animal he was. But if, on your way to freedom, you were to kill a few of these Scarlet dogs it would really be doing us a favor."

"It'll be my pleasure." The orc answered, the glint in his eyes promising that _someone_ was going to die in the near future. With one final goodbye, the rag tag group of prisoners started to move away, making their break for freedom.

It was only when the group was long out of sight and hearing that the two lesser clones looked at their short term leader. "Why the hell did you let them go?" One of them asked, confused by the whole situation. The lead clone, looking at his subordinate, merely shook his head at his copies clear stupidity. "Simple. I let them go because they can serve us better as a decoy then dead. That's why in fifteen minutes, I'm going to get our brother here…" With that, he patted the shoulder of the clone that hadn't said anything so far "To go into the Scarlet HQ and alert them to the fact that there has been a prison break and that he saw them heading for the Hand's gate. While the Scarlet's are busy getting together and chasing down their escaped prisoners, we should be left alone long enough to get what we need done finished then get the hell out of here without too much trouble."

As the look of understanding finally dawned on the face of his slower counterpart, a look of confusion quickly returned to the clones face. "What will I be doing?"

"You'll be telling the boss about the plan to use a decoy of course." The leader of the clone trio answered truthfully, smiling darkly at the stupid looking grin that appeared on the dumb ass of the trio.

"Ssssweet! When should I go and tell him?"

Before the clone knew what hit it, the lead clone (Also known as Clone A) stepped forwards and smashed the dumber clone (Also known as Clone D) right in his stupid looking face. With the loud, wet crack of bone Clone D vanished into thin air and smoke, leaving nothing behind but a series of memories to the survivors. "Now."

After a moment of silence, the secondary subordinate clone (Also known as Clone B) asked "You enjoyed that far more then you should have didn't you?"

"Yep." Was the short, simple answer of Clone A as he looked up at the clouds above. "You know what? I'm in a good mood. Give them twenty minutes."

"Yes Sir."

…..

**Back in the Chapel**

Blinking briefly as the new memories entered his mind, Naruto couldn't help but sigh as he shook his head at the sheer stupidity of one of his clones. He wasn't the only one, as those clones around him followed his example without seeing him do it in the first place.

"**Alright, so we've drawn what needs to be drawn, placed what needs to be placed and even prepared myself to undergo the whole process. What's next?**" Naruto asked the clone holding the scroll and turning his body around to face him, the sound of bone wind chimes clacking together as he moved around.

The scroll holding clone (now known as Clone S) started to read over the scroll once more just to make completely sure that he hadn't missed any small but highly vital details. **"Well… we have the ritual circles drawn down in a holy place… we have the chosen remains set up in the right order and fashion…" **Glancing up from the scroll, Clone S looked at the boss and his makeshift 'outfit'.

Pressed against Naruto's body and held on by thin pieces of wire where the bones of both Haku and the Oto elite, as well as a few of Haku's still intact organs dangling against the right places. The affect, according to the scroll, was to look like a 'cheap Hallow's End costume with a slight twist'. While the holiday of Hallow's End had been explained to him, Naruto admitted that it seemed like something he would have to witness for himself before he fully understood it. Still, if one didn't know the bones were real, the Boss would have looked like a drunk moron that wanted to look like a skeleton by removing his clothing and wearing some old bones with wire.

"**And thanks to our Scarlet 'friends' here we have the organs that we need to help power the ritual. The only thing left to do is for you to stand in the centre circle and let us perform the stupid chant." **Clone S explained, reading the scroll once more for the sake of it.

"**Alright then let's get this over with people.**" The original Naruto stated, taking a few noise filled steps so that he stood at the centre of what looked like a glowing purple masterpiece of seal craftsmanship. As the other clones started to find their positions in the grand scheme of the thing, a pentagon was quickly formed with the original being in the middle.

Clone S carefully put the scroll he had read countless times since the whole project began and simply dispersed himself in a puff of smoke, sharing his knowledge with his brothers so that they could use what he knew to perform the ritual.

Taking the disperse as a signal of sorts, the clones held their hands towards the center of the pentagon, opening and closing their mouths to speak the words that left their tongues twisting and turning into shapes and sounds that untrained ears like they own couldn't understand. While it sounded painfully demonic to him, Naruto didn't even flinch as the lines on the ground began to glow brighter and brighter.

Before he knew it, he started to float off the ground. Feeling completely weightless was a rather strange but not completely unpleasant sensation for him. Still the clones continued their untranslatable chant; still the purple lines glowed brighter.

At the height of his ascension in the air, it happened quickly. It wasn't so much a noise as it was a sensation of '_Crunch_'. In an instant, all the bones that were somehow connected to the remains of the two shinobi he was wearing as well as the organs that he wanted to replace were crunched into a fine dust like a ton of rocks smashing into a human being.

Naruto's vision went white with the burning agony that the first few moments of this transformation was causing him, his mouth open but unable to scream at a pitch that humans could hear (For miles around the Chapel dogs, wolves and other canines were going completely insane with no one being able to figure out why).

When he thought that the worst of the pain was over, the replacements started to bond with him. Words failed to describe the sensation from the big crunch or the bonding process itself, but Naruto passed out within three seconds of it beginning.

….

**Unknown location, Parts Unknown**

Haku wasn't quite sure where he was at the moment.

He wasn't quite sure of a lot of things at the moment.

The last solid memory that he remembered having was of his death. It had been a rather uncomfortable affair that in hindsight he would have rather avoided attending, but it did have a few moments that made it bearable.

After that he remembered… being content. He couldn't remember just where he had been or what he had been doing, but whatever it was he had been content and at peace with himself and his world.

So it was a rather nasty shock to wake up here of all places. Looking around at his surroundings, Haku couldn't find an answer to the question 'How did I get here?' and instead asked himself where 'Here' was. 

The place he had awoken in looked like a sewer… or at least, it had been once. Disrepair, boarded up passageways, dust and the fact that almost everything was coated in ice suggested that it had been abandoned ages ago. Even the water below his feet was frozen, raising the floor a few inches higher then it should have been.

Honestly, the cold didn't bother him in the slightest. In fact, it sort of reminded him of his home before the… unpleasantness. His home before he had been taken in by one of the seven swordsmen of the mist. There were some good memories there, even if it ended as badly as it did…

Still, that didn't explain what he was doing in an abandoned, frozen over sewer pipe.

Looking around at the frozen over sewer again to see if he missed something the first time, something new caught his eye… something orange; something that rang a rather loud bell in his mind. "It cannot be…"

…

**Different Unknown location, Parts Unknown**

All things considered, things could have been worse.

Kimimaro couldn't remember much of what happened between his death as his sheer force of will to serve his master simply wasn't enough to keep him going and waking up here. He could remember… blackness. Sorrow. Regret…

Shaking his head to get it out of the unknown past, the former leader of the Sound five took in his surroundings. It looked like it had once been a sewer tunnel, with the major difference of a mad scientist having decided to move in and start to turn it into a lab before abandoning the place halfway through construction.

Everywhere he looked there were pieces of medical and scientific equipment littered around the place. Some things he knew for a fact that Lord Orochimaru had; others he had never seen before but he felt his lord would have wanted to have them. There were devices laying about whose only purpose of existence seemed to be to cause insanity through mind breaking pain to some poor, helpless son of a bitch.

And the puddles of glowing green goo… Sweet Kami the puddles of glowing green goo…

The stuff was everywhere. Pooling on the floors, stained on the walls and ceilings… he had a strong gut feeling that if he was to touch any of it he would have the chance to watch one of his limbs melt before his very eyes.

Lord Orochimaru would never let one of his labs get into such an untidy and unorganized condition. Whoever ran this place was a hack when compared to his master's glory… But in all fairness, everyone looked like a hack when compared to Lord Orochimaru.

With a satisfied look on his face at the knowledge that he would be more then capable of handling whoever ran this place, Kimimaro began his trek into the unknown lab, all the while noticing the lack of pain or coughing on his behalf.

His smile seemed to grow brighter.

Things were already better then he last remembered.

…..

**Chapel of the Flame, Twenty minutes after Fusion Ritual**

As Naruto started to return to the land of the living, he did so questioning his sanity.

After he had blacked out, he had… it wasn't quite a dream but that was the only word that worked so he had 'dreamed' that he had been a loud, party obsessed pink female pony who was singing a song about cupcakes while baking and licking the spoons… His mouth still tasted like peanut butter…

Forcing himself to sit up, he looked at the scroll in his hand for a moment before opening it up and putting a pencil to it, writing down at the bottom in easy to read words

Warning: May Contain Nuts.

Feeling that his good deed to future users of the scroll had been complete, he managed to force himself to his feet before he began to wonder how he had gotten the scroll from across the room in the first place… as well as how he had gotten the pencil that no longer seemed to exist…

Deciding that some things were better left unanswered, he simply made a point to pretend this moment never happened and move on with his undeath.

Looking towards the nearest clone that had somehow gotten hold of a packet of cigarettes and was enjoying a smoke while he was waiting for the boss to come around, Naruto simply asked "**What did I miss?**"

"**Clone A's decoy is currently underway. He delayed alerting the Scarlet zealots for a few extra minutes so their prisoners have gotten through the gate. They are currently running around and setting up search parties in order to recapture them. While a squad of the Zealots did attempt to investigate the Chapel, they simply vanished in the confusion. It will be a little while before anyone notices that they are missing." **Clone C reported, taking one last puff from his smoke before taking it out of his mouth and dropping it on the floor, crushing it under his foot. "**Your orders, boss?**"

Nodding his head in understanding about the situation, Naruto internally debated his next move. While he might have felt a little weak after performing the ritual that combined Haku's and the bone wielders earthly remains with his own, after a few moments of resting he was started to recover from the experience.

Even as he stood there shaking off the weakness he already felt faster and stronger then he had ever been before. He felt great! But he still needed to keep a level head despite his surge of power. A compound filled with thousands of warriors trained and experienced in slaying the undead was not the best place for a death knight to test out his new body. Taking into account the fact that he was completely alone here and in a weakened state of being made detection rather suicidal right now.

"**We will henge into the squad that tried to break in here. After that, we will make for the same gate that the prisoners used and we will simply tell anyone that tries to stop us that we have picked up their trail and are joining the hunt. After that we make our way back to base." ** The original stated, liking the plan already. More as an afterthought then anything, he added "**And make sure to gather the remains of all the Scarlet bodies that we still have. We'll take them with us.**"

"**Yes Boss.**" Clone C answered, dispersing so that the boss's orders would reach all ears.

….

**An unknown amount of time later, somewhere in the wilderness of the Eastern Plaguelands **

Naruto grinned as he continued to run though the dead and rotten forest of the plaguelands.

The plan had gone off without a hitch; the Scarlet's not even taking the time to question the newest squad joining the hunt and giving them their blessing to leave through the front gate. It was almost sad just how foolish the insane zealots were… almost. Sure they might not have encountered someone like him before and therefore didn't know what to look for but they could have at least put a little effort into it!

Still, after leaving the Compound behind him he had felt a little…restless. He wanted to test out his new limits a little and what better way to do that then to race the clones he had made prior to the ritual? It would give him a solid idea of what his improvements were.

Standing on the bridge that marked the boarder between the Western and Eastern Plaguelands, Naruto still couldn't believe how quickly he had left the clones behind in the dust. Reaching the bridge first miles ahead of the competition, Naruto had simply decided to lean against the stonework and see just how long it took for the clones to catch up.

To be honest, he wasn't expecting company in the slightest out here. Anyone undead wouldn't have given him a second thought, unless it was to show some respect to a higher ranked member of the Scourge. Anything living would make itself known long before he saw it simply because the nature of the Plaguelands would cause them to stand out.

Watching as what seemed to a perfectly healthy bird flew overhead in its attempt to head south, Naruto blinked. It was with a great deal of surprise then that before he opened his eyes again there was a rather sharp and painful polearm lodged through his chest, pinning him to the stonework of the bridge. The wielder of said polearm looked like what he suspected was a crossbred between humans and lizards, its scales so dark blue that it became a form of black while the lines between the scales glowed white.

When it spoke, its words sounded like they were having trouble figuring out just when they needed to be said, creating a rather weird sort of echo effect that was somewhat different then his own. "_**Naruto Uzumaki, today the deaths that you are destined to cause will be your own." **_

As the polearm twisted in his chest, Naruto felt the… whatever it was that gave him existence start to fade, his body quickly losing the strength to move and becoming as still as the corpse he had once been. The light in his eyes began to dim, the world around him growing dark as his eyes closed for one last blink.

And then, the world… shifted…

Opening his eyes again, Naruto found himself on a tree branch near the bridge, his chest free of polearms and no lizardman in sight. He remembered passing through here on his way to the bridge. Glancing upwards at the sky, his eyes widened as it had clearly moved back to the position it had been in when he had arrived here.

'_What…The…Hell?' _

Whatever just happened was burned into Naruto's mind. It had happened but, looking down at his chest clearly it hadn't. He would have merely dismissed it as a daydream if it wasn't for the fact that daydreams don't cause you to feel the pain of having a polearm in your damn chest.

'_So, lizardman is waiting for me at the bridge in ambush. I don't know how the bastard managed to get near me without alerting me so easily, so walking into his trap with the intention of turning the tables isn't an option. I _could _go around him and avoid the trap completely but considering how determined he was I doubt he would just give up just because I avoided him once. I would have to worry about him jumping me down the road and I doubt I will get another chance. So let's deal with him now then.'_

A course of action decided, Naruto placed his hands together. With a small puff of smoke, an exact copy of him appeared on the branch next to him. With a nod of his head, the clone continued on towards the bridge while Naruto trailed behind, staying in the shadows of trees and using them to hide as he followed the clone.

As the clone took up position on the bridge, Naruto remained in the shadows nearby to watch what was happening. If what he had witnessed moments ago was truly a vision of things to come, then this would be his chance to see just how exactly the lizardman had gotten the jump on him.

As a few minutes passed and nothing happened, Naruto was beginning to doubt his judgment when the bird he had seen flying south began to fly towards the bridge. The moment it reached the bridge, it froze in mid-air. This caught Naruto's attention. It was simply staying in the same position, not moving in the slightest in mid flap. By all rights it should have dropped to the ground but it didn't.

Once he noticed one strange thing, he began to notice the others as well. The river that had been flowing moments before had frozen into place just like the bird. In fact, everything on and around the bridge had simply stopped moving.

'_It's as if… their frozen in time… But that shouldn't be possible!'_

Placing his hands together just to make sure that he wasn't under a genjutsu of some sort, Naruto performed the release only to find that nothing had changed. No… That wasn't quite true. Something had changed.

'_What is… what is making that 'sand through the hourglass' sound?_

Before his eyes, three portals opened up on the bridge. There was one on both ends and one right in front of where his clone was standing. Out of the two portals at the edge of the bridge came two lizard things. While everything above their waist appeared humanoid, the rest of their body looked more like some breed of lizard like donkey. Their hands… their claws were shining a bright blue color as they kept their claws firmly focused towards the clone's direction.

Out of the middle portal in front of the clone stepped the lizardman with the poleaxe from before. Watching as it took a few steps towards the clone; Naruto let his hands think for themselves as they went about forming seals, the air around him starting to chill as it started to form the jutsu.

As the lizardman readied his strike, the two supporting lizard things stopped waving their arms about. The moment their claws stopped moving, time returned to the bridge… just in time to witness the damn polearm enter the clone's chest.

"_**Naruto Uzumaki, today the deaths that you are destined to cause will be your"**_

***Poof* **

Naruto smiled at the look of surprise on the lizardman's face as his target vanished out of existence in a puff of smoke. However this was nothing compared to the look of confusion that followed when an unnaturally heavy mist suddenly rose up around him and the rest of the bridge, cutting off his vision.

"_**I see… so you were expecting an ambush… no matter. Your time is at an end Uzumaki. Nothing you can do will prevent it. All you are doing is struggling vainly against the inevitable. Even if you escape your fate at my hands this day, my brothers will never stop hunting yo ARGH!" **_

The lizardman's words were cut off by a horrible growl of pain. As the mist suddenly lifted as quickly as it appeared, all three lizard things were impaled hundreds of times from almost all directions by razor sharp needles made out of pure ice. The lesser lizard creatures simply fell to the ground dead while the larger, stronger and more humanoid creature only fell to his knees, struggling to breathe as it tried to summon enough magic to flee back to where it came from.

Before it even had the chance, the creature felt metal against its neck. Glancing down, he noticed that his neck was now in a semi-circle of sorts in the blade of an oversized sword of sorts. Slowly forcing himself to look at the wielder of the blade, his eyes narrow as they meet the unnatural glowing blue eyes that were now Naruto's own.

"_**As long as you…continue to exist… we will never stop hunting you."**_

"**Let them come if they think they are strong enough. But today the hunt is over for you." **Was all Naruto said as he jerked the blade, removing the lizard like humanoids head with a surprising amount of ease.

As the creatures headless body collapsed to the floor, Naruto was shocked as its remains turned into a fine, pure white sand of sorts. Even its weapon turned into dust. Looking around the bridge to prepare himself for an ambush that would no doubt follow from such a replacement, he noticed that the two lesser lizard things had turned to a sandy dust as well.

After a few minutes passed and nothing happened, Naruto put the Kubikiribōchō back on his back. If the creatures had used a replacement, it was clear that they had taken the chance to flee instead of launch a counter attack.

As something landed behind him, Naruto turned around with great speed, sending a kunai right into the throat of one of his clones. Watching as it burst into smoke, the other clones put their hands up in surrender. **"Calm down! It's just us!"**

Lower his hands, Naruto let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. **"Sorry. I thought you were one of the lizard things trying to get me when my guard was lowered. Let's…Let's just get out of here alright?" **

With a nod of their heads, Naruto and his clones continued into the Western Plaguelands, silently pondering what the hell had just tried to kill him.

When they had left, two beings appeared on the bridge. One of them was a white haired gnome, who looked at her companion with a look of respect as she gave them a rather excited round of applause. "I can't believe you just pulled off a perfect physical premonition without alerting the user to the fact! I mean, I just saw you do it so of course it did happen, but still!"

"_**It isn't as hard as it's made out to be. In fact it's rather easy if you pick the right person. The real hard part is using it on yourself."**_

"While I have to admit that was impressive, I have to ask… why? I thought your flight wanted him dead." The gnome questioned with a look of interest on her face as she glanced at the being she was currently in the company of.

"_**They do. But I don't."**_

With nothing more to say, the gnome's companion vanished into the time streams. The gnome sighed as she shook her head. "I guess I will just have to wait and see then."

…

**Death's Breach, Dusk**

With the confusion of the prison break causing chaos in the Scarlet Enclave, fresh troops were sent to the possible entrances that the Scourge or any other possible enemy could use to get in or out of Scarlet held lands to reinforce the defenses at these locations. The squad from the Western branch of the Crusade was nothing short of a blessing of the light to the High General, sending them to Death's Breach rather quickly in order to ensure that no attack from the Noxious Glade was successful.

Naruto and Naruko looked at the bodies of the legit Crusaders that they had approached under the pretense of reinforcing them. They hadn't been prepared for an attack from within though, falling like flies to a can of bug spray. The two clones had dropped the disguise of being crusaders shortly after the slaughter, even if 'Naruko' insisted on remaining in a female form.

The two clones watched as the ghouls and the cult of the damned members from the glade exited the tunnel, looking around with great care despite the assurance that the place had been cleared out by a death knight. When it was ensured that the coast was clear, the cult quickly began to work at a feverous pace to get the defenses of the Scourge foothold into the Scarlet Enclave as secure as possible as quickly as they could. Word had gotten around that the Lich King himself was going to be inspecting their work. Fuck ups now would not be tolerated.

While the Naruto clone began to aid the Cult of the Damned members in setting up camp (Much to the surprise of the Cult members themselves) 'Naruko' kept an eye out for possible interference. While this was more of a secondary objective then anything else, both Clones were more then happy to see it done.

….

_**Scholomance, Western Plaguelands**_

_It was the night before Winters Veil and all through Scholomance, the creatures were gathering down in the depths._

_The Ghouls and the Plague hounds were howling in tune, the Geist were a prancing and Cult members dancing. _

_The banshees were singing a hauntingly sweet tune when a blond haired Death Knight stepped out of the Gloom. _

_He was wearing red and white clothing, a sack on his back. In a cheerfully loud voice he cried "Come get your crap!" _

_The undead gathered around in uncharacteristic glee, embracing the holiday like a night elf hugging a tree. _

_Opening his sack Naruto reached in blindly, unable to stop himself from smiling kindly. _

_To the Ghouls he gave some brains and guts, To the Geist he supplied a bag of mixed nuts. _

_The Plague Hounds were soon chewing happily on arms and legs, while the Banshees fought over blood covered rings. _

_With the gifts handed out they started to feast, enjoying the taste of the strange roasted beasts. _

_As when all were content they all sang clear, "Merry Winters Veil to All! We'll slay you next year!"_

**AN: Merry Christmas Everyone! **

**I hope you have a happy holiday and you all enjoy yourselves this fine season. **

**I would like to take the time to thank all my readers and reviews for taking the time out of their busy lives to acknowledge my stories. I would list you all like normal but right now I just want to get this uploaded as quickly as possible. **

**I hope you enjoy my few little twists and turns. I know that if you didn't I'm sure to hear about it soon enough. At least I hope too anyway. **

**But now its time to move onto the romantic interest. **

**We will be having one last poll. It will have three options on it. **

**Red**

**Infinite**

**Harem**

**I know I've never written a harem story before. But I've never written a story this good either. Honestly, I should have put it on an earlier poll but I've decided to give it a chance. **

**Besides, while I was planning things out for this story a relationship came to my mind. I would rather keep it in there one way or another but I'll put it to the vote. That poll should be up on my profile shortly. **

**BTW: That Scourge Christmas song was not just a little bit of fun. It was based on real events, expressed in a manner fitting the holidays. I hoped you enjoyed it.**

**Now Merry Christmas, Happy holidays, enjoy yourselves this holiday season and look out for yourselves and others. If you're in no condition to tell me how awesome I am, who will?**

**Goodnight everybody and have a Happy New Year!**

**Kiue Jin. **


	8. Chapter Eight: The Filler Chapter

**Disclaimer: I didn't write any of this. I wasn't there at the time and if I was there I was asleep. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.**

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet): **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King: "_**Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge**

**Chapter Eight: Coming to terms with yourself.**

_If you are reading this chapter, then you are having doubts and seconds thoughts about the whole 'spreading the Lich King's blessing' around for reasons that are no doubt personal. Maybe you have been asked to help an unenlightened friend or family member from your past life to receive the blessing and you are suffering from a surprise change of heart and are wondering what you should do. _

_While painful and confusing, there is nothing wrong with suffering the trails of guilt and doubt. As it is said, 'It is a blessed mind too small for doubt'. I am sad to say that I too underwent the pain of conflict when I was tasked with bringing my loving sister into the fold against her unenlightened will. _

_It is the price we pay for retaining our mortality. It is the trail that we undergo in order to prove our dedication to our lord and master. It is the burden that we all must bear. Anything worth having requires some form of trail to achieve and this is the price of immortality for ourselves, our friends and our loved ones. _

_How you deal with your doubts and guilt is up to you since it is impossible for me to write down a universal answer to your problem. I will offer you a piece of advice however: When it comes time to do the deed, make it as clean and painless as you can on your loved ones by having a steady hand. A solid, steady strike will grant them release from their mortal lives and ascendency into immortality with little fuss, while a hand shaking with doubt will simply cause you to mess up the strike and cause them to suffer a long, painful demise. _

_Trust me, they will not be happy when they are brought back if you messed their deaths up in such a manner. My sister gave me the trashing of a lifetime because I showed weakness while silting her throat. Instead of a nice deep cut that would have only taken mere seconds to end her life peacefully, the wound was far to shallow. Learn from this mistake and ensure that when it comes time for your love ones to meet their fate that the hand welcoming them to the afterlife is both firm and caring enough to make it quick. _

_~Chapter Four of the Cult of the Damned's 'Commonly asked Questions' booklet.~_

...

**Western Plaguelands, Somewhere in the Wilderness**

Naruto felt... weird.

Having been granted a little time to himself before the next job began simply because the Lich King was busy dealing with other matters to give him any new orders, the Scourge's newest Death Knight had simply walked into the vacant wilderness in order to find somewhere that he could be alone for a little while and get his thoughts together.

Having found such a spot under the shade of a rotting tree, Naruto had taken a seat and began the process of attempting to deal with the unexpected side effects of the ritual that granted him his new found abilities.

He was... remembering things. While it wasn't that strange for flashbacks of his old live to enter his mind, what was worrying him was the fact that most of the new memories entering his mind weren't his own.

He remembered doing things he had never done, visiting places that he had never even knew existed and meeting people he had never even seen before. To add to the confusion was the fact that these alien but oddly familiar memories were causing more of his own to surface as well.

The forest of death... he remembered going into that forest with the rest of Team Seven but for the life of him he couldn't remember why. There had been a number of other teams of Genin there from different villages because... (*Insert mental snapping noise here*) because of the Chuunin exam! He remembered the whole bloody thing now.

Looking back on it Naruto had to confess that Team Seven was so not ready for a promotion to Chuunin, let alone take part in the Exams for it. The fucktard of a team leader had still signed them up while claiming that they were prepared despite the fact that he screwed them over as a teacher. It was rather disheartening to see how stupid he had once been to be so blind to his own faults as to fail to recognize that he wasn't ready.

But like the attention seeking retard he had been, Naruto was forced to watch himself as he bluffed his way through the first test while missing the whole damn point of it. He hated to admit it, but what his younger self lacked in brains and common sense he more then made up for it in ego and foolish bravado.

Then came the forest... he honestly shook his head and laughed at himself as the memories of fighting the snake man played out before him. The first person in their profession other then Haku to show him any form of respect and his first reaction is to attack him. The really funny part was that he had honestly believed that he would win against the snake man. The memory was cut off completely when the snake man drove his palm into his gut, knocking the younger version of Naruto out completely.

The memory of the snake man... Orochimaru... brought up a couple of different reactions from Naruto. Part of him was filled with a murderous rage at the mere memory of the man, another seemed to push forwards a sense of caution about trying to take the man on that his younger self had completely lacked while the third part...

The third part longed for the snake man's approval, almost like a son looking up to his father.

Before Naruto had the chance to consider this confusing state of internal affairs further, a familiar voice entered his head.

'_Naruto, can you hear me?'_

Having grown somewhat used to his Lich teacher's ability to whisper things directly into his mind, Naruto responded in the same manner.

_'_ _I can hear you just fine Amal'thazad. What's happening?'_

_'I need you to return to the school. The Lich King is summoning the both of us back to Icecrown. He has an important mission for us at last it seems.'_

_'Alright. I'll be right there.'_

Forcing himself to stand back on his feet, Naruto began the trip back towards the Scholomance. He had to admit that a part of him was rather excited by the idea of finally going out on a mission again. Once upon a time he would have whooped for joy, but at the moment he merely contented himself with a smile that threatened to consume his face.

After all, what other job in the world would allow him to travel to exotic lands while meeting with interesting people as he was discovering new cultures? Sure he would have to brutally slaughter them afterwards but it wasn't like death was truly the end or anything anymore.

**AN: I'm sorry that this chapter is so short and sort of lacks the content that the others held, but you all knew from the start that this was going to be a filler /bridge chapter that was merely going to connect Arc 1 and Arc 2 together. Don't worry, Arc 2 is going to be bad ass. **

**To answer your questions, I foresee at least 4 or 5 Arcs taking place in this story. Which leads to two important notices. **

**Firstly: I am still awaiting nominations for possible partners in Naruto's Harem relationship. Now before you start telling me that no one would be interested in Scourge Naruto, remember that he will not be Scourge forever. It might take a while, but he will get there in the end. So please send in your nominations. **

**Secondly: Originally, Naruto was going to begin the Scourge invasion of the Elemental Nations in Arc 3. However some people have expressed a dislike at the idea, wishing for Naruto to be more active in Warcraft side of things. So I am putting it to a poll. **

**Would you rather see Naruto invade the Elemental Nations, the Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor ? Or would you rather see him help lead the defense of Northrend itself?**

**The poll should be up by the time this chapter is readable. **

**I promise that Arc 2 will make up for this poor chapter and that the issues of people who believed Naruto wouldn't pair up with a dragon because they wouldn't be able to reproduce will be laid to rest in a rather creative manner. **

**Until then, Goodnight Everybody. **

**Kiue Jin. **


	9. Chapter Nine: Discussion and Division

**Disclaimer: Stupidity killed the cat, Curiosity was framed. **

Death Knights: **"We speak like this, worm."**

Liches: _"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.): "_I talk like this too! YAY_!"

Black Zetsu (Or Zet): **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King: "_**Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge**

**Chapter Nine: Discussion and Division. **

_Before you judge the following pages as heretical to the Scourge ideal of unity under the Lich King, just hear me out first. All the following are unquestionable loyal to the Lich King and would be honored to carry out his will without a second thought. The issues that are mentioned are purely with each other and even then they are mostly put aside when the greater good of the Scourge is at stake. _

_Two of the largest and most deadly of flaws that all mortal kingdoms suffer are those of division and prejudice. If the elves had put aside their pride and disdain for what they considered lower life forms such as humans prior to being invaded themselves, not only would the Alliance have done far better during the first and second wars with the Horde, but they might have been able to cut off the Scourge in our second rise to power under the Death Knight known as Prince Arthas during the first stages of our upraising. _

_No matter how advanced our weapons, magic and armor becomes and no matter how vast our armies or how deadly our champions; Division, Prejudice and Unity have always been and always will remain our greatest of allies. Division divides our many enemies, allowing us to overwhelm and conquer them with the least amount of fuss. Prejudice saves us from having to deal with potential threats by causing our enemies to weaken themselves with infighting and apathy. Unity blesses the Scourge with the full might of our armies, all members marching in time to crush those who stand against our King into dust. _

_But alas, even the Scourge is not completely immune to Division and Prejudice. _

_Some factions are easy to spot on the surface. The division between the Scourge itself and the Cult of the Damned for example is hard to miss. One is made up completely by the undead solders of our King, whilst the other is filled with his still living subjects. Despite this division, both sides are united under the banner of the Lich King and serve him in their own ways. _

_There are a couple of less well known divisions however. One of the least talked about but most dangerous of these fractures in our beloved Scourge is the rift that formed in our leadership classes. On one side of the rift stand the Liches and the Death Knights while the Blood Council and the __San'layn stand on the other. _

_The Liches and Death Knights of the Scourge have always been powerful leading members of the Scourge. In fact, it isn't strange to see a Death Knight teamed up with a Lich since their powers often directly benefit or cover up the weaknesses of the other. As long as there have been Scourge, these two leading classes have existed and therefore they are rather close allies. _

_After the fallen demon hunter Illidan's failed invasion of Northrend and the ascension of the death knight King Athras to godhood, the Lich King created the San'layn from the broken bodies of the __blood elves that were left behind. Frighteningly quickly, the San'layn took on the leadership roles that the Liches and Death Knights had always traditionally held. _

_While Death Knights and Liches are often powerful field commanders and agents, if you went to the motherland of Icecrown and were blessed enough to be granted access to the Citadel itself, you would notice the lack of Liches and Death Knights in any real position of power on the political scale. _

_Under no circumstances should you get involved with a feud between a member of the San'layn and a Lich. Feuds between the two factions often play out like masterful games of chess and odds are if you are reading this for the first time you would be lucky enough to be a pawn. Pawns have a habit of dying. _

_~Chapter One of 'A beginners guide to the Scourge's political pitfalls: What to look out for.'.~ _

**Icecrown Citadel, Halls of Reflection**

There is a feeling that all members of the united Scourge forces (The Scourge and the Cult of the Damned respectively) encounter when they step foot on the icy and barren lands of Icecrown. To say that what they felt was like walking on holy ground would have been a contradiction of what the Scourge was about; Holy was a state of mind that those who were aligned with the Lich King neither understood nor had time for. Besides which, the feeling was different enough that such a comparison wouldn't work anyway.

Some of the Scourge called the feeling 'Returning to the Fatherland'. Regardless of what you were, were you had been born or even what function you played in the titanic organization known as the Scourge, Icecrown was were it all began. The Scourge was created in Icecrown, the Lich King ruled the Scourge from Icecrown, the beating black heart of the Scourge depended on the Citadel located in Icecrown. All members of the Scourge and the Cult of the Damned knew that deep down in their bones Icecrown was imprinted and engraved even if they were never lucky enough to step foot on its frozen snowy soil.

Others simply knew the feeling as 'Coming Home'.

As they walked /floated at walking pace through the hallways of the Citadel, neither Naruto or Amal'thazad said a word to each other. They didn't need to since they could already tell what the other was thinking merely by experiencing the joy and feeling of belonging that simply being within the birth place of the Scourge gave them. If they had to describe the feeling, it would have been like walking out of a slightly toxic smog cloud only to step into the most pure, untainted air one could imagine.

As they passed through the threshold of the Halls of Reflection and entered the 'waiting area' as it had been unofficially dubbed, the first thing they noticed was the total lack of noise. Everywhere else in the citadel was crammed with construction, experiments or was just generally busy. Here it was as silent as the grave. Other then Naruto and Amal'thazad, there was no other 'living' thing in the room...

Except possibly the sword floating in the middle of the chamber...

Naruto remembered seeing the blade that his master wielded when he had proved himself worthy of taking the title of death knight. Time had not made the experience any less uncomfortable for him. He could feel the eyes of the sword glaring right into his soul, feel it reaching out for it in order to claim it as its latest snack...

Pulling his eyes away from the blade and taking great effort to avoid even looking back in the nightmares general direction, both the death knight and the Lich gave Frostmourne a wide and respectable berth as they walked around the room and towards the door on the other side.

The hallway beyond was as devoid of noise and movement as the room containing the Lich King's blade with the added benefit of the blade not being there to watch them. Still they continued on it silence, Naruto's footsteps filling the hall with more then enough noise as it was. Neither of them knew why the Lich King had summoned them and they weren't going to waste time speculating with each other just what their god-like leaders motives were either.

When the Lich King said 'Jump', you didn't ask questions. You simply walked off and found the nearest cliff as soon as possible.

As the final door fell away, the master and student entered the throne chamber of the Lich King himself. If they had been granted entrance here at a different time they might have taken a moment to look around and truly take in the grandness of the room itself. This time however, their attention was focused purely on the currently occupied throne... who was not alone.

Standing to the left of the seated Lich King was Professor Putricide, talking quietly to himself and adding up some sort of equation on his notebook. Naruto was honestly glad to see the Professor. While others might have been somewhat put off by the man's raging insanity, Naruto couldn't help but admire the scientist's personality and attitude to his tasks. Deciding that if there was time later that he would catch up with the man, Naruto's attention turned to man...no, creature on the Lich King's right side.

It looked somewhat human with the exception of a few minor details. Whatever this creature was happened to be fairly tall, towering over humans by a fairly decent margin. The ears were also much larger then those of a normal human being and Naruto couldn't help but feel that had this poor bastard been born in a human settlement with them a large number of nicknames would have followed him around to this day. 'Him' was the only word that worked, since it was clearly not a female.

His style of clothing was also much different then anything else he had seen in the Scourge thus far. While their was a certain amount of professionalism and pride that went into the armor and uniforms worn by those members of the undead war machine who had enough mentality to take pride in their appearance, only the Lich's and the higher standing Cult of the Damned members dressed in a rich manner.

This man wasn't dressed richly. This man was dressed in a way that flaunted the sheer level of wealth he processed. In a tailored wave of red,orange and black garments, the man was silently saying to the word 'You think that mearge pile of gold makes you one of the elite? How cute. I'm the one who signs your paycheck at the end of the day.'

For a brief moment, Naruto's eyes met with those of the strange creature's. To say that Naruto was somewhat familiar with blood lust was an understatement. He had felt it so many times being directed at him or directed _by_ him that for the most part it no longer fazed him any more.

This was the first time that he could remember in which he felt that his blood was being given an appraising eye; as if the viewer was judging if his blood was worth the time and effort to bottle and place on a shelf for one of those many special occasions that often come around or if it should be left to stain the ground like the disgusting filth that it was.

The confidence that this thing carried with it just be existing was that of an apex predator that had long ago taken the spot at the top of the food chain. There was something primal that lived at the core of Naruto's being, something dark and bloody that had hooped on the whole 'humanity' bandwagon long before humanity truly existed, demanded that this unspoken challenge for dominance be answered in the traditional manner: With lots of blood and screaming on the behalf of the other son of a bitch.

Wither it was because of everything else that humanity had picked up since its animal origins or the fact that this was the Lich King's throne room and the Lich King himself was currently present, Naruto suppressed the urge to leap forwards and tear the unknown creatures throat clean out. Pacing himself so that he could continue to walk besides his mentor, Naruto didn't trust himself to be the first person in the room to speak.

"_You summoned us, Mileage?" _Amal'thazad asked, bowing alongside Naruto as was expected of all members of the Scourge that the Lich King had blessed by granting them an audience.

"_**You may rise. There is a matter that I require your council on. Proceed Prince **__**Theraldis."**_

With a bow so low that only those who are masters of the art of butt kissing would have the spine to pull it off (Further proof that the man was never to be trusted in Naruto's eyes), the now named Prince Theraldis smiled spoke only three words. "At once, Mileage."

The moment the Prince had spoke, Naruto knew exactly why he hated the bastard so much.

The prick was a _Politician_.

The monster gave off a bloodthirsty aura that would tell any sane creature within range that horrible things would happen to it if it stayed, but the moment he talked you and smiled nicely in your direction you started to doubt what your instincts were screaming at you. _'Sure he looks and acts a little strange and he appears to have the blood of the dead children littered around him on his clothes, but surely someone who smiles like that can't really be that bad rigARGH!' _

Seemingly no longer paying attention to him, Prince Theraldis's hands began to glow as he held them a little ways in front of his chest. Rather quickly, a see-through image of what appeared to be a floating city appeared in the middle of the gap between those present. Naruto had never seen such a thing before and he had seen _a lot _of strange things in his brief time.

"_**This is the new city of Dalaran. Rebuilt be the mages who once called it home after the Scourge tore the city state asunder. Currently it is floating south of Icecrown. It is visible from the top of the Citadel. What do you see when you look upon it, death knight?" **_

Pausing in shock at being asked for his opinion, Naruto quickly turned his attention back to the image of the city that appeared to have more or less invaded Scourge country. Looking at the city from a tactical point of view, he couldn't help but admire just how thought out its defenses were.

Since it was no longer on the ground, they couldn't tunnel under it or simply swarm it. Infiltration was also an issue since there were only a handful of ways to enter the floating city, all of which would no doubt be controlled tightly. The fact that the only real way to get troops into the city was through transports automatically removed one of the Scourge's greatest advantages: Overwhelming numbers.

Of course, if a skilled enough strike force managed to land and hold and secure an area long enough to set up a portal or secure a safe landing zone for allied troops, the battle wouldn't be as impossible as it...

"**What aren't you showing me?**" Naruto asked bluntly, glaring at the Prince who's duty appeared to be providing intel. Prince Theraldis glared back in turn but didn't say anything as their lord and master spoke. "_**And why do you believe that either myself or Prince Theraldis is neglecting to tell you something, Uzumaki?"**_

Glancing back towards his master in order to try and gauge the situation, Naruto had to force himself not to smile at the look of amusement on his liege's face. Amusement was a good sign, it meant that he was heading in the right direction. **"Two reasons my liege. Firstly, arrogance. The fact that whoever is in control of the city floating south of us was willing to place it so close to the heart of your power suggests that they have something up their shelves. I have no doubt that many of those currently in the city bore witness to the first sacking of Dalaran. They wouldn't be stupid enough to throw their city away in a foolish bluff this early in the way, so they must have something that is boosting their confidence."**

"**Secondly, if they didn't have some kind of game changer we would have already raided and destroyed the threat that such a stronghold can offer long before now." ** Naruto finished, as if it was the most simple thing in the world to understand. The silence that followed might have only lasted a couple of seconds, but for Naruto it dragged on for three lifetimes.

Then the chuckling began to echo around the chamber.

It wasn't the 'I'm laughing because I find you funny' kind of chuckling. It was more the 'I find you and your antics amusing for the time being, therefore I've decided to let you live for at least a little while longer' kind of chuckle.

"_**Out of the five death knights I have asked that question to, you are the only one who figured out that there was something more then the surface problem." **_The god king of the Scourge decreed in a tone that suggested that Naruto was a good boy and if he continued to be a good boy he might just get a treat. If Naruto had a tail, it would have been wagging.

"_**Prince Theraldi, if you would." **_

The Prince of the Blood Council nodded his head bitterly as his hands glowed for a few seconds more. A bubble of sorts appeared around the illusion of Dalaran. "This is what is preventing the Scourge from simply crushing the upstarts where they have so foolishly trodden. This shield does a number of things, but the foremost of them is to destroy any Scourge allied undead creature that enters it's embrace."

Taking this new and vital piece of information into consideration, Naruto remained silent as his mentor took the opening to speak. "_Since I am sure you have attempted to do so already, what happens when we send in our living agents?"_

Almost grudgingly, Prince Theraldi sighed at the idea of parting with the knowledge he processed and giving it to a lich and a death knight. Naruto got the firm impression that the only reason he was going to even share this information at all was because showing incompetence in front of the Lich King, inside of his own throne room no less, was a sure fire one way ticket to the stomachs of many different ghouls.

"There seems to be a series of spells woven throughout the shield that triggers whenever a loyal member of the Cult of the Damned or any other Scourge loyal living creature enters the shield. The more humanoid agents are enslaved by some sort of mind control spell that makes them walk up to the nearest authority figure and turning themselves in. We have attempted to turn this around on them by equipping our agents with plague bombs with the intention of setting them off once they find the authority figure, but so far the bombs are countered by means unknown before they can be used."

"Those that are unwilling to serve the Scourge as a member of the cult and are persuaded to serve the Scourge through... other means are released from our influence the moment they cross into the shield and any tamed living beast we send in is overwhelmed with rage and turns on any undead creatures in sight." Unhappy that he had been ordered to give the information to begin with, the 'Prince' managed a smug smile at the knowledge that his time of being helpful was now over.

Naruto had to admit that the situation looked rather grim. However, he had only just been introduced to the situation and didn't know the full capabilities of the Scourge. Only one being did. "**How may we be of service, mileage?" **

"_**There is an old **__**nerubian **__**research outpost located underneath the Borean Tundra. It wasn't important enough for it's name to be remembered but it was meant to have been abandoned at the end of the War of the Spider. It was too isolated to be worth securing after the war so after it was cleared out of all remaining nerubian warriors it was left abandoned. Your first task will be to secure the complex for future use. Once secure, Professor Putricide shall join you to explain your second task. Is that understood?"**_

"**Yes Mileage."**

"_Yes Mileage"_

"Yes Mileage"

Naruto, Professor Putricide and Amal'thazad answered at the same time, bowing slightly because it just seemed natural to do so. Raising his hand, the Lich King merely waved them away.

"_**Good. You will find one of the cult members near the entrance waiting for you. Follow him and he will create a portal to the Tundra, where you will meet your guides. Do not let me detain you."**_

With the clear signal that this conversation was over the Professor, Naruto and Amal'thazad calmly and respectfully walked out of the throne chamber without a word, almost as if afraid that speaking out of place now would be the final thing they ever did.

They weren't wrong to think this.

**AN: My gods this one took a while to write up. **

**I was distracted by a whole lot of different things and projects, plus the fact that it was hard to figure out just how to work this chapter so that it did what it was meant to do. Start a whole new arc. **

**I need a name for this research outpost and I'm willing to take suggestions. I don't really care ****if the name you want to suggest is meant to be the original name or simply a new name that Naruto and Co will just make up. It don't really matter.**

**It is official. When the third arc comes around, Naruto will be defending Northrend. Trust me, this was a damn close poll since day one. **

**I am making a new poll. I am planning on Naruto to kill off and raise two of his friends from Konoha. I will be letting you decide which ones they will be. Please note that Sakura will not be on the poll. I have something special in mind that will really reflect on how the new Naruto feels about her.**

**I do believe that is everything I need to talk about, so all I will say is please read and review. **

**Goodnight Everybody!**

**Kiue Jin. **

**PS: If some of you are having trouble reviewing, it's my fault. I wanted to clear up the Author Note chapter but because I accidentally uploaded this chapter first it sort of threw the whole thing out of balance. Try Pm'ing me instead if your review's cannot get through.  
><strong>


	10. SUPER IMPORTANT NOTICE!

Yes, I know, it's another Petition. I'm sure you've all noticed a few of these floating around by now.

This is a personal matter to me. Some time ago, this 'Trollish watchdog group' attempted to get 'Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge' taken off the site.

I woke up one morning, checked my email and found two messages from the site staff.

The first one kindly told me that the site had taken 'Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge' off of the site due to breaching the rating system or something like that.

The second email, which was somewhat newer then the first, told me that there had been a mistake and that my story was placed back on the site, no harm no foul. I didn't contact the staff, they came to the conclusion on their own.

This group almost succeded in removing one of most popular stories off the site. I no longer have many of the chapters on my computer anymore, so it would have been gone forever. Odds are I would have been so heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to write anymore. Not after seeing all that effort go to waste.

I was lucky. Other authors won't be. Having come so close to the razor's edge myself, I can almost feel the pain they must be going through. So please, read the petition below, sign your name and try to help us fix this before it is too late.

**Kiue Jin**

...

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Author's Note: Apparently there's a bit of a mess going on on this website involving stories being permanently deleted because they were mass flagged by a trollish watchdog group. Please read the following petition.

XXXXX

PLEASE copy & Sign this petition, and no worries, this is only a temporary chapter.

THANK YOU

Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.

Myself, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.

For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that I believe violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in its original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.

It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.

If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.

While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be looseing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.

For those that may agree with this, please feel free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.

Psudocode_Samurai

Rocketman1728

dracohalo117

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M4GIC OR4NGEZ

Kiue Jin


	11. Thank you

There was once I time that I would go out of my way at the begining or end of every chapter I wrote and list every single person who had been kind enough to leave me a review or follow my story and thank them for doing so. As of late, there have just been so many people doing this that it has simply been inpratical to do so any longer. You came here to read a story after all, not to get bogged down with my thanks.

I have to confess something. Over the last few months, I haven't been working on anything. There has just always been something more urgent that I needed to do first and I've simply kept putting it off. In truth, I was rather tired of writing. I had so many ideas that I wanted to put down on paper but there was only so much room and sometimes storylines conflicted.

I hate to say this, but this is not the long awaited chapter you have all no doubt been waiting for. I haven't started it yet. However, due to Mists of Pandaria and after reading a number of Warcraft stories /Crossovers (I recommend 'Frostblood' by Poicephalus. 'Lords of Warcraft' by JIMMYJAMSTER728 and 'Path of the Monk' by Monkeybandit2) I now have something that I lacked during all these months.

The will to write again.

I promise you all that before November is out that I will have the long awaited chapter written and presented for all of you to read. There will be twists, turns and surprises in store. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait and it won't turn into a Duke Nukem.

There is something else I wanted to do while I have your attention.

As I said before, because I now have so many people following this story I can't normally take the time to achknowledge them for all the hard work and support they have given me. Even after such long peroids of inactivity people still hope that maybe today will be the day the new chapter comes up. That sort of loyality is... new to me and it shouldn't go unrewarded.

So...

_CaptainPrice_

_DemonFallenAngel _

_Jormun _

_narutofan020_

Out of all the reviewers I've had since I started writing this story, you four hold a special place in my heart. You were the first four people to review this story and have continuted to review it since then. Often times yours are the reviews I look forwards to reading because it gives me a clear idea of if I am heading in the write direaction storywise. So, from the bottom of my heart:

**Thank you. **

_EK12_

_Drednaught _

_apocalyps24_

_Thorfaxdragonkin_

_Dragon VS Phoenix_

_Krulk ( Special note: Krulk made his account in order to put a face on his review to my story.)_

_wolfdiablo_

_Luxlucis85DK _

_ABitterPill (Another Special note: I rather enjoyed your reviews and looked forwards to them as much as any other. Often times they gave me ideas.)_

_Skelo _

_Absimilard _

_blitzhannan (Whoever you may be)_

_Technorocker _

_gamerman5603_

_karthik9 _

_firelordeg_

_Ungodlyone_

_Drake0x_

_Leseras (Whoever you may be.)_

_VFSNAKE _

_BlackWarth_

_Honest Lunar Raven (I started writing a story in honor of you. Do I really need to say more? It really made my day to know I made you happy for a little while.)_

_1sniperwolf (Important: This was the writer that gave me the idea for a Death Knight Naruto. Without him, this story would never have been written. Read his stuff. In fact after you've read it, start writing that story you've always wanted to write and post it on the site. Maybe you will inspire someone to start writing.)_

_Mashot Tito _

_Impstar_

_Artemis-Ikana _

_Dracon90 (Whomever you truly are)_

_damien (Whoever you may be)_

_Silverscale _

_Chooocolate_

_Meteorthunder3 _

_woe (Yet another person of mystery.)_

_Kel'thuzad The Summoner (Best. Name. Ever)_

_Liger01_

_Samuraiguy2 _

_ITS MY COOKIE DAMMIT (Glad to know my little song made it onto your facebook... shame I'll never see it because I don't know who you are!)_

_G3neSyS _

_Nubitox (I would rather you have an account so that I could thank you properly, but for now I'm just assuming your Batman)_

_SomeGuy300_

_kano547 _

_Flyte28_

_ChaosTheVoid_

_Celestia GF of the Void (Are you related to Chaos in anyway?)_

_Yukilumi ( You I like. I loved your review. It's just a shame there was only the one.)_

_DemonMerc (Another case of a reviewer I loved but was saddened by the fact that there was only one review. That might have been my doing however.)_

_Headsupdisplay_

_luna sanguine _

_AnAddictedReader_

_Foxcomm_

_nimb09_

_Shin'nen no Ookami_

_ussopking_

_Undeen _

_JAKdaRIPPER (End of the day, it's my story. If I want the contract to be sealed to a user at death, it will be.)_

_Micon Waves_

_Qaletaqa _

_draugeltheshadowhero _

_jjones987_

_xHalcyon_

_Blackwatch (Whoever or whatever you may be)_

_Maleivius _

_Artjr _

_Kriegmarine_

_KuyouFox_

These are the the sixty eight (68) people who took the time to write at least one review for this story since it began. Many of them have written more then one but really it doesn't matter how many reviews they wrote to me. The fact that they were willing to write anything at all in support of my creation...

Everyone who has taken the time to read this story and liked it, I thank you. These are the only 68 that I can put names to but this goes out to everyone who has read this story at some point and enjoyed it enough to want to see how to went. Thank you.

This is to all the people who have loyal put up with my lazy ass for the last few months, hoping for a chapter that I'm only now starting to write. Thank you and I hope to make it up to you all.

I... I don't think anything else really needs to be said.

All I can say at the end of the day is:

**Thank you for everything.**


	12. Chapter Ten: The Nature of Victory

**Alright people. You've asked for it. You've waited for it. And now it's finally here for your approval / disapproval. I hope it was worth the wait. **

**Disclaimer: I owned the rights to Naruto and World of Warcraft once. Then I lost them both in a drunken card game... along with my kidney.**

Mental link: _~I'm speaking to you from inside your brain!~_

Death Knights:** "We speak like this, worm."**

Liches:_"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.):_"I talk like this too! YAY!"_

Black Zetsu(Or Zet): **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King:_**"Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge**

**Chapter Ten: The Nature of Victory.**

_What is victory? _

_Everyone who has ever had a dream that they believed was worth fighting for; Everyone who has ever taken up the sword, the axe, the bow or even magic has at one point or another asked themselves this seemingly simple question if they have even the slightest bit of a brain in their head. But like all seemingly simple questions, it is deceptive. _

_How one describes victory and the terms in which it is reached speaks highly of their character as a person. For some, victory means that they have converted those who were once enemies into friends by honorable and honest means. For others, truest victory only comes when all their enemies, their enemies familes and friends and even just some people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time have all been slaughtered in painful and horrific ways._

_Some favor short term victories while others are willing to lose a battle or two in order to come out on top in the long run. But what is the true nature of victory? Which path is the correct way to achieve it?_

_It is hard to say. The only true way to understand if a victory was truly a victory relies heavly on hindsight. Sure Doomhammer was able to crush the orc clans that betrayed him alongside Gul'dan during during the Second War, but the loss of so many of his warriors and the distraction of the betrayal cost him the war. _

_So what of the Scourge and the Cult of the Damned? How do we define victory? _

_Many of the unenlightened would claim that our goal is to see all life sniffed out and the world turned into a blighted wasteland. They are mistaking our methods for our planned outcome. In truth, all we wanted was that every living thing was willing to give our lord and master the respect he deserves. In return, he offers us immortality. _

_And yet, everywhere we turn people reject us. Murder us for our beliefs and the gifts we offer them. The Forsaken were blessed by the Lich King himself and they dared to spit in his face when they betrayed him. The Argent Dawn hunts us down in the blood thirsty manner of true mindless zealots. _

_The Scarlet Crusade, led by one of the Dread Lords who tried to enslave our people and drive the Scourge into the ground are nothing more then paranoid hate mongers who deserve nothing but to be burned at the very stakes they torture and murder countless 'heretics'. But despite their crimes against us, our master offers them forgiveness by allowing them the gift of immortality despite all they have done. _

_For the Scourge, Conversion is the path to true victory. Either through enlightened conversation and debate or a slightly more direct route, our place in the world will be ensured by the new waves of brand new recruits and members that flock to our ranks each and every day. _

_For the glory of our master, we will spread his word to all corners of the world and in his mercy we will offer his gifts to both those who believe and those who refuse to do so. _

_Through Victory or Death, we shall prevale!  
><em>

_~The first book of Gork, first Orcish prophet of the Cult of the Damned from the 'New Horde' and later the Lich by the title of Master Summoner Zarod~_

_..._

Mining is a dangerous business.

There was always the threat of cave ins, flooding, poison gas, uncovering creatures that really weren't thrill to have company, explosive pockets of natural gas, digging up relics of a time long past that were either cursed by the former user as they died or had simply been tainted by evil magics from the start... and those were just the risks that took place ever time someone in the mine hit a rock with the business end of their mining pick.

Being miles underneath the cold earth in small, cramped, often dark or poorly lit places for months at a time while breathing in poor quality air, sleeping in shifts on the rock hard ground while eating food that was designed for distance rather then taste in mind while under the pressure that the next swing of the pickaxe could bring reward, pain or death (Depending on what you were digging for, it might be all three.) Throw on top the fact that everyone else in the mine is also under all this pressure and the fact that all of them are carrying something that could be used as a lethal weapon in they were enraged enough and it is clear why mining isn't for the light hearted.

Since saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in such a situation often resulted in the death of the moron who spoke, miners tended to get an almost supernatural feel for reading a mine and could feel the nature of the emotions that was pulsing through it like blood through veins.

It should have been a clear sign to the Alliance high command that something was wrong with the mine they ordered underneath an underground series of ruins just north of a series of steam pools when almost eighty percent of the veteran miners they sent in to work it left within the first few hours, refusing to step foot in it again regardless of threats or offers of reward. Most of them had been dwarves, a species that had seen evolution weed out those who failed to feel the emotional storm that was a mine or read the writing on the wall via pickaxe to the back of the skull.

But there were always those who hadn't known better or who believed the risk was worth the reward who were more then willing to venture into the very heart of darkness that was the Northrend underworld for profit and glory.

It was only later, when the sole survivor of a group of messengers sent to the mine with the intention of giving word that they were all finally heading back home to Stormwind returned to the scouting fleet with news that everyone in the mine was either dead or insane did the Alliance finally cut their losses and abandoned those who remained in their deep ore sampling mine to whatever fate awaited them while the rest of the fleet sailed homewards, confused as to what happened to the miners to bring about such insanity.

...

**Unnamed Nerubian Ruin / Alliance Deep Ore Sample Mine**

Once upon a time and quite a few years prior, the ruins of what was once a minor Nerubian science outpost had once been alive with activity. Even back at the height of operations it had never been that important and once the War of the Spider began it was one of the first outposts to be abandoned in order to strengthen other locations. Even the Nerubians that had once lived there would be hard pressed to remember what the place was even called.

And thus decades later the ruin was still abandoned but in surprisingly good shape (Nerubians built things to last) when the first Alliance scouts had managed to uncover a tunnel entrance on the surface that led to it. While the Alliance High Command were already making plans to convert the ruins into a base of operations off the coast and further inland, further scouting of the ruins uncovered evidence of a mining operation that had been left behind when the ruins were deserted. There were even signs that the mine was still good and that the owners of the ruin had been planning on returning at some point in order to continue digging.

Wishing to see just what bounty Northrend had to offer in the way of metals and jewels, the mining operation was brought back to life by Alliance personal. Despite hiccups at first due to miners refusing to enter the mine underneath the ruin because of a 'bad feeling', the operation to find ore samples was going well until the mining crews started digging up Saronite. The situation quickly degraded shortly afterward.

While an outsider looking in would no doubt be slaughtered for their troubles by the seemingly united band of lunatics in a painfully awe inspiring display, anyone watching without being spotted would quickly notice the factions that had formed amongst what had once been miners. Race, Gender, slights real and imaged had splintered them apart in a cesspool of distrust, paranoia and hate. Even amongst the factions themselves there was a level of distrust, as if everyone just knew that everyone else was plotting against them.

Sticking to the shadows of the roof, an upside-down Naruto slowly began to unwind and lower a thin metal wire above what appeared to be a dwarfish keg that he had witnessed several of the miners using. Once it was close enough to ensure that he would be on target while at the same time ensuring no one was able to see the wire, he carefully removed one of six small bottles from his belt... the green one. Removing the cork in the bottle with his teeth, he slowly moved the bottle and tilted it just enough to let just a few drops slide down the wire.

It took a little while for the liquid to get to the end, but once it did it slowly dripped onto the wooden cask and caused a small amount of smoke to rise from it as the acid quickly ate through the wood. Returning the cork and making sure it was firmly in place, Naruto briefly check if anyone had noticed the smoke before returning the green bottle to his belt, removing a purple one in its place while he lowered the wire just a little further. Unseen because of the thinness of the wire and the poor lightning, Naruto repeated the process of dipping some of the contents of the bottle down the wire and into the keg itself.

Shortly after yet another test to see if it was possible to make a Death Knight throw up (Better known as 'Traveling by Portal') and a quick briefing of the situation by a human cultist who didn't tell them his name for reasons known only to himself, Naruto and Amal'thazad considered their resources and options and decided on a simple course of action.

Taking advantage of the combined knowledge of their scouting shades and crypt fiends, Amal'thazad would stay behind in order to gather and then lead a small army (By undead horde standards) through one of the tunnels into the ruin that the Alliance didn't know about while Naruto went on ahead to weaken and throw the crazed fools into further chaos before their forces arrived to wipe them out. The logic was 'Why should we endanger our guys when they are just so _willing_ to kill each other for us?'

After being armed and educated by a couple of cult of the damned members (mostly female) on the usage of the wire and poison combinations and being guided through the tunnels to the ruins by one of the shades, Naruto began the first stage of his mission. With the first keg poisoned, he once again corked the bottle and rolled the wire back up. He had some more groundwork to do.

...

**Konoha, Library**

"...and please try to get return your books on time this time sir. It can get really expensive if the fines get bad enough." Ami explained to the man in vain as he left the building. Giving a small sigh, the red haired woman shook her head before turning to the only person still in line.

A smile appeared on Ami's face at the sight of one Hinata Hyuuga. She had done her research into the eldest heiress of the Hyuuga clan and she was more then ready for this conversation. After hearing the tale she was honestly excited that she would be able to not only help the poor girl, but also do so in such a way that would convince her to view the master in a favorable light. "Good morning Hinata! How can I help you?"

Completely contrast to Ami's happy mood Hinata looked absolutely horrid. It was clear the girl hadn't been sleeping lately and from the slightest hint of Oder in the air the girl had become so depressed that she had even forgone bathing. This was a young woman who had lost the main driving force in her life and now she was stalling and falling to pieces bit by bit in front of everyone. Just as planned. Ami had been keeping close tabs on Hinata, waiting for the right moment. Approach her too soon and the situation could backfire, approach her too late and she would take her own life before she could be given new direction.

Hinata's dead eyes met Ami's live ones, her face and voice devoid of emotion as she softly spoke in words barely above a whisper "Good day Ami. I am well."

Ami's smile slowly faded at Hinata's tone. Maybe she had read the situation wrong and the Hyuuga heiress was degrading mentally faster then she had thought. If the situation was left on its own any longer it could spiral completely out of control... That couldn't be allowed! She had to act now! Before it was too late!

Looking around the library Ami didn't see anyone but you could never be to carefully with shinobi. "Actually there is something you could help with me Hinata. Could you follow me to the staffroom for a moment?" She asked hopefully, her eyes only now picking up small details about Hinata's outfit that didn't seem right. Small stains, torn slightly around the shelves... She was only wearing one sock... Oh dear. Hinata had slowly stopped caring about how she looked in public. That wasn't good!

With a small, defeated nod Hinata agreed to follow her. Wasting no more time, Ami started walking just that slightly bit faster then normal in a vain hope that the quicker she was able to get to the staffroom, the sooner her mistake could be corrected. She wasn't sure who, but she knew that someone would have her head eaten by ghouls while still alive if she somehow managed to bugger up such a golden opportunity to gain such an influential cult member.

The short trip to the Library staffroom was still far longer then she wished it to be. Still, opening the door to the room meant for library staff and beckon Hinata to take a seat while she closed the door with a small click gave her a small sense of peace. Of privacy. Walking slowly over to the small table, she took a seat opposite the downcast, emotionally dead by still walking Hinata.

"You know how two weeks ago I left for a few days in order to go back and gather a couple of things from the wreckage that was my village with a couple of others after the area was declared safe?" Ami asked, smiling slightly as Hinata gave her a short, sharp nod. The slightly younger teenage girls silence was more then enough to put anyone around her at ill ease.

"Well... there was an item I was forced to leave behind. Not because I could carry it; it was merely a plain covered leather bound book. However, had the subject been discovered by my fellow villagers they might have drawn the wrong conclusions and done things I wouldn't be in any condition to regret it afterwards. I have reason to believe that this book would be able to help you find your missing boyfriend." Ami confessed, her eyes watching Hinata in order to see her reaction. Mostly there wasn't one at first. But there was just the slightest hint of a spark behind her eyes, like someone striking flint and getting sparks but so far failing to light something up. While she knew that the Hyuuga heiress hadn't been in a real relationship with the love of her life at the time of his disappearance and assumed death, Ami was willing to do or say anything if it broke the cursed silence that chilled her to the bone!

" How." While the word was still barely above a whisper, there was a very firm edge to her word. This wasn't a question, this was now a chance to back up her claim enough in order to prevent the mother of all beatings for daring to try and give her some form of hope and failing to live up to the hype.

"The book contains knowledge on how to summon and communicate with the spirits of the departed. If you get it, you'll be able to summon Naruto's spirit and ask him where his body is and what happened to him. Before you think I'm crazy I used one of the spells within the book to summon the spirit of my sister in order to find out who murdered her and it worked!" Ami finished quickly, afraid that Hinata would disregard her without letting her get a word in. "And before you ask the book contains no knowledge on how to raise the dead! I will admit some pages were missing when I got my hands on it but to my knowledge it contains no spell that could raise the undead I swear!"

Ami slowly paused to catch her breath, her hands held up in a minor surrendering position in order to help try and prevent Hinata from just striking her down dead. It was true though. The book contained no spell that could raise the dead into undeath... she had made sure of that when she removed all such pages while visiting the wreckage of her village. Better to slowly bring this recruit around then to try and bring it all at once.

Hinata herself seemed conflicted about all this. While it was clear that she hadn't believed what she had been told, her wanting... her _physical need _for the story to be true made up her mind for her after a few more silent moments of inner turmoil. The sparks had finally managed to set something alight.

"Where did you hide it?"

...

**Unnamed Nerubian Ruin / Alliance Deep Ore Sample Mine**

Letting the last few drops slide away, Naruto waited patiently for stage one of his mission to be complete. If he was completely honest with himself he would have admitted that poisoning the kegs may not have been the greatest idea in this situation. On almost anyone else it would have been a good idea but everyone down there seemed that paranoid and on edge of each other that they would most likely avoid the kegs anyway either out of fear that someone else had already poisoned them or because they had already done so themselves in an attempt to kill a few of those other bastards. Still, if he managed to kill one or two of them that was one or two less to worry about when his forces struck.

Thinking that made him smile a little. It was still weird to hear himself thinking about 'his' forces.

Rolling up the wire again, the sound of shouting caught Naruto's attention. While he was just too far away to hear exactly what they were howling at each other since their echos were far to mixed to be understandable, the upside-down ceiling walker spotted what appeared to be a human and a dwarf simply standing there and screaming at each other till their faces had turned red, a couple of other dwarves and humans watching the shouting match with interest and unease as they clearly cast glances and glares at not just the guys on the other side but also each other.

Sensing the chance to get up to some mischief, Naruto slowly stalked across the roof while making sure his footing didn't dislodge anything and give himself away until he was standing above the two contenders of the 'who can scream and swear the loudest' championship. Taking a few steps closer to the human side of things, Naruto removed the empty purple bottle from his belt and waited.

He didn't need to wait long.

Almost in sync with each other the shouting human and dwarf both turned from the other in disgust and began walking towards their own. Waiting until the respective crowds were focused on their shouter, Naruto hurled the purple glass bottle towards the back of the dwarf's head. It collided after a few seconds, silencing the once noisy cavern with the sound of smashing glass that was quickly followed by the 'thump' that was heard all around the ruins as the dwarf fell to the ground and didn't get up.

While it wasn't clear if the bottle had actually killed the dwarf or merely knocked him out, the damage was done. Since the humans hadn't been watching the dwarfs for those important few seconds they hadn't seen where the bottle had come from. The dwarves had been paying attention to their own and while they did see the bottle they only spotted it mere moments before it impacted with their brother in arms (For now) skull, clearly showing them that the bottle came from the direction of the humans. It was the final straw that broke the camels back.

With a war cry that was simply pure emotion made verbal by roaring it to the sky, the dwarves raised long metal tubes and aimed them at the human crowd before unleashing pure thunder through the cavern. The human that had been walking back to his group fell forward and didn't raise again while one of the human bystanders suddenly clutched at his shoulder while screaming in pain.

Another of the human bystanders, a woman from what Naruto could tell, raised her hands towards the nearest dwarf gunner. With a wave of her hand a fireball appeared into the world, sailing briefly over the sudden field of battle and engulfing the dwarf in question in an inferno. Abandoning their wounded and burning comrades to their fates, the still fighting fit members of each group quickly withdrew in order to find cover while shouting out to alert their mates of the betrayal of the other faction while firing pot shots at the enemy.

Like a naked flame in a oil supply depot, combat suddenly erupted all over the ruins. Factions, sub factions and individuals who had merely been waiting for the correct justification to rip out the throats of the bastards they wanted dead seized the moment with glee as the thunder of gunfire, the casting of spells and the screams of both personal triumph and horrible anguish filled the cavern in which the ruins themselves were housed.

Naruto smiled a wicked little grin as he watched how the situation was falling apart with amusement. It was just like pulling of a truly great prank, only how successful the prank itself was was judged by just how high the body count was at the end. Much like setting up a prank, some of them required months of preparation and carefully planning to pull off just right while others just needed to be spur of the moment things. Something small in just the right place could have a huge impact under the right circumstances.

Convinced that stage two of the plan was well underway and no longer needed his continued influence to keep going, Naruto slowly began to walk towards the highest point of the ruin, jumping to it once he was within range. Carefully, he began his decent downwards while avoiding hot spots of combat. He still had one objective left in his mission before he could personally help as many of the crazy people in the ruin to the peaceful life of undeath and he would only be able to find it within the mine under the ruin itself.

...

**Eastern Headquarters, Location: Unknown**

"... and in summery the Southern base is slightly ahead of the estimated schedule. All resources will be ready for transport days before the target date arrives." The messenger personally selected by Karin to deliver her report directly to Lord Orochimaru himself finished, still in the kneeling position he started in as he kept his eyes to the floor. The Snake Sannin had taken poor health and had been almost completely bed ridden for a couple of days, forcing such an important report to be given in the great ones personal bed chamber.

Orochimaru softly chuckled at the good news. "Good. Karin has overcome my expectations once again. Tell her to delay transportation until at least two days before the target date. We don't wish to draw attention to this operation until the last possible moment. North Base, report."

The messenger from the Southern Base stood up respectfully and walked over to the wall by the door with his head bowed, the messenger from the Northern Base coming forward and taking to kneeling in his place. There were a couple of different messengers standing at respectful alert from a number of different bases; In some chances two or more were from the same base with only part of the report or a total decoy altogether, ensuring cation and secrecy above all else. It wasn't without merit: At least two base reports would be incomplete because the messengers carrying parts of them had been intercepted while only one of the many decoys sent out managed to reach the target location, at which point the location was raided.

"Lord Orochimaru, the Northern Base is having a major problem following one of your orders. While we are able to gather the resources required of us, transporting our test subjects and prisoners to the target location will be a major problem with our current numbers. We have enough trouble keeping them in line in the base itself with what we have, but without additional aid or permission to terminate a few of the more problematic prisoners and test subjects we cannot ensure secure transportation when the time comes to move." The man spoke plainly, his head bowed. He had taken the viewpoint that since bad news would only sound worse if it was clear he was panicking, he stayed as calm as he could be.

Orochimaru smiled slightly at this report. Honestly, he had been expecting it to be along these lines to some degree and had preemptively prepared his solution to the problem. Turning towards the messenger from the Southern Base, he smirked as the man seemed to flinch at the sudden attention. "Tell Karin that she is to send as many squads as she can spare to the Northern Base in order to help secure their test subjects for transport. I'm willing to bet that she already has made plans that require much fewer troops then she currently has already."

Turning back to the messenger from the Northern Base he slowly and painstakingly raised his hand and pointed to a nearby table with a single sheet of paper with writing on it. "On your way out, take that with you. It is a list of all the most problematic and expendable experiments and test subjects in your base. If your additional support isn't enough to help you secure transport you may work your way down that list one at a time until the situation improves. Dismissed." While the word was barely louder then the rest, all the messengers left to carry out their task as quickly as possible. Fresh decoys were going to have to be sent out to help cover them but their loss was to be expected and wouldn't harm his plans in the slightest.

Sitting in the dimly light room with the door closed, Orochimaru took a deep breath as he rested his back against his pillows, pondering the future and the many outcomes that could come from it. Only three people knew the true extent of his plans right now and being one of them he was wisely keeping it that way. He knew both people he had trusted with the details would keep it to themselves; if not out of loyalty to him then because doing so would aid their own personal interests. This once in a lifetime... no, once in a millennium opportunity was rushing towards them like a raging bull and the reward of being the first to grab it by the horns would be the power to steer which direction it went. He simply could not afford to not be the one steering the bull; failure would assure that he would be trampled by whoever did.

*Tap Tap Tap.*

Looking towards the door, the smile slowly slid off of the snake sannin's face. There was still one or two loose ends he had to tie up before he could truly grapple with the bull with all he had. "Enter."

There was no reply.

Sitting up further, Orochimaru was almost surprised when a beam of painfully white light suddenly appeared through the door like a hot knife through butter, piercing both his hands and pinning them to the wall. After a few seconds of nothing the door fell apart in pieces as Sasuke held his sword in one hand and kept his lightning spear focused with the other.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at the sight of the expected betrayal. It would appear that one of his loose ends had made itself a priority.

...

**Unnamed Nerubian Ruin / Alliance Deep Ore Sample Mine**

Decending the outer walls of the ruins, Naruto considered the idea that maybe triggering a civil war amongst the lunatics that had inhabited the ruins he was planning to take over and set up base in wasn't the smartest of ideas. While it was a positive sign that the morons were wasting their lives and ammunition blowing the ever loving crap out of each other, the fact that they weren't that good at aiming meant that his future base would need to have a great many giant holes repaired before they could move stuff in.

Making his was downwards while going to great lengths to avoid being spotted by the crazy armed people fighting it out within the ruin itself or walking along patches of wall that could suddenly explode due to poor aiming, Naruto thought about joining the fight and wiping out as many of the mooks as possible before they could inflect anymore harm on his new base of operations with their good intentioned but poorly executed self destruction.

_~Naruto, I'm currently standing at the entrance tunnel we're using to attack the ruin. Expect it would already appear to be under attack. What the hell?~ _Naruto flinched a little at the edge that was in Amal'thazad's voice in his mind. It was clear that he hadn't been the only one worried about collateral damage to their future home.

_~Amal'thazad, I can explain!~_

_~Oh this ought to be good.~_

_~I smashed a bottle over the head of a dwarf and made it look like some nearby humans did it!~_

_~That's all? Because from where I'm standing most of the ruin we were meant to take over is either no longer there, rubble or rubble that is currently on fire! How these morons managed to get stone to burn I'll never know but still...~_

_~I also poisoned a few of the beer kegs but they weren't drinking from them! Look, I'll be the first to admit that this seems to have gotten a little out of hand...~_

_~Gotten a little out of hand?! Naruto, I just witnessed a human male on a horse jump through a wall of fire and harpoon another man with a trident! A bloody trident! Do you know just how 'Out of Hand' the situation has to be before something like that can happen?! DO YOU?!~ _

_~...That must have been awesome to see."_

Naruto could physically feel the Lich press a boney hand to his forehead as he signed. _~Naruto... what are you doing now?~_

_~I'm currently making my way down the ruins to deal with the Paladin that we were told should be hiding somewhere in the mine itself.~ _Naruto answered truthfully, making a little more progress towards his goal.

_~So the king of the crackpots hasn't shown up yet?... Alright. Naruto, I want you to continue with what you're doing. Find and kill the paladin then rejoin our attack forces in order to wipe out anything that's left over. Be careful! Our sources have done some digging on this guy. He wasn't put in charge of this jolly crew because of political reasons or underhand dealings so the cunt is good at his job. Do not underestimate him!~_

_~How will I know what he looks like?~_

_~ He will be the human who is glowing in the dark who may or may not have an eight year old boy stuck to his courch. Trust me, the asshole will stand out even amongest this band of dumb asses. Speaking of which, I should begin the painful process of eviction before the fuckers completely total the place. See you on the other side Naruto.~_

_~See you on the other side Amal.~ _ Feeling the presence in his mind leave him, Naruto took a quick look at his current surroundings. He was near the bottom of the ruins now. He could see the discarded mining equipment that had been left behind as their users decided that settling grudges old and new came first. There were even the freshly killed bodies of a couple of people who had been on the wrong side of the pickaxe when the calls to settle all debts were made.

Making the quick jump and landing in the center of the entrance of the mine itself, Naruto slowly gripped the handle of the over sized sword on his back, swiftly bringing the large weapon to bear as he began his cautious advance into the heart of this ruins darkness.

This was his first true mission as an agent of the Lich King and he would not insult the faith placed in him today by dying.

**AN: Well. It's been some time in the making, but here it is! I honestly hope it was worth the wait because frankly I am. I was willing to put aside not one but two games that I really wanted to play and kicked my ass into gear in order to get this done before the weekend. I hope you're happy at the sacrifices I made for you, my dear readers :P**

**Now, one of two things that need to be addressed: **

**The unnamed Nerubian Ruin. This will be the base of operations and home for Naruto and his Scourge friends from here on out. The problem? It needs a damn name and I cannot think of one. So, I'm letting you guys decide for me. Think of a name and send it too me either through Review or Pm and I'll pick the one I believe fits the most. No vote for it this time but still.**

**Due to past troubles with the review option after removing and replacing chapters in the past, I won't be removing the prior AN chapters nor will I remove AN chapters in the future. Makes things easier for reader reviews in the long run. **

**Okay, that seems to be about it for now... If anyone wishes to draw pictures for the story please go ahead. Otherwise, I'll try to give you all a christmas present this year (I may or may not try to Scourge another carol. I'll leave that to the reviewers.) **

**I may also finally take everyone's advise and go back and fix up all the old chapters in order to show people that yes, this really is worth reading. **

**Goodnight Everybody!**

**Kiue Jin. **

**Edit: Due to a fire at our local internet tower, the Internet, phones and mobiles in our area went down. We still don't have a landline phone, but I was able to figure out how to get a reduced internet. It will be a few weeks until I can get back to full internet and because of the weather I'm currently having trouble getting the uploads to work, but if you're reading this I was successful! Enjoy!**


	13. Chapter Eleven: Heart of Darkness

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to mark each new chapter with a disclaimer?**

Mental link: _~I'm speaking to you from inside your brain! ~_

Death Knights:** "We speak like this, worm."**

Liches:_"We speak like this, mortal."_

White Zetsu (Or Su.):_"I talk like this too! YAY!"_

Black Zetsu(Or Zet): **"Shut the hell up Su. This is why nobody likes you."**

Lich King:_**"Listen or die, Mortal."**_

**Under New Banners: Book of the Scourge**

**Chapter Eleven: Loss of Innocence and The Heart of Darkness**

_Over the last few years, foolish people have been slowly coming to Northrend in order to answer the call of the Old Gods and willingly enslaving themselves to the cult of Twilight or whatever the hell they call themselves. People will understand what you're talking about if you just call them 'Twilight Cultists'. _

_Out of the many enemies that dare to stand against the Scourge, these Twilight Cultists are by far amongst the most dangerous. They have no morals that they live by, they have no limitations that they are willing to stick to and they don't fear death in the slightest! _

_Unlike with Paladins or almost any other champion of the Light or Nature, a truly devoted follower of the Old Gods cannot be raised into undeath properly. At death, the Old God that the cultist gives loyalty to will lay claim to their soul within moments after their deaths and drag it off to do whatever they do with souls. The Crypt Fiends suggest that the Old Gods consume the souls of their worshippers and their ritualistically sacrificed victims because they like the flavor__._

_Now how does this make them such a threat? Without a soul, raising a former Twilight Cultist into a proper member of the undead community becomes impossible. Even the seemingly mindless skeletons require just a tiny fraction of the soul of their former owner in order to have just enough of a mind to understand the orders they are given. Without a soul, one doesn't have a mind. Without a mind, one cannot comprehend a command. Undead raisin from the bodies of Twilight Cultists just sort of stand there mindlessly, not reacting to anything around them. _

_You can get a bit of use out of them if you raise them from the grave quickly enough after they die, but after a few minutes the Old Gods will take what they are owed and tear the soul from the undead body, turning it into nothing more than a mindless, lifeless husk._

_While this disadvantage during a combat situation is a pain to deal with, the true danger comes from the higher prophets and priests of the cult. Those who prove themselves to the Old Gods are rewarded with powers that can quite frankly require teams of our best, brightest and strongest in order to have a chance at taking them out. More common results involve the puppet of the Old Gods retreating to cause problems another day or the whole team being wiped out with much pain and yelling. _

_The level of threat increases when the Faceless Ones, the abominations of the deeps that serve the Old Gods and act as the leaders and enforcers of the numerous branches of the Twilight Cult are present. These creatures show signs of being made from Saronite itself, thus enforcing just how hard it is to harm or kill these soul eaters from beyond the planes of standard existence. _

_Pockets of the Twilight cult can be found in the deep and dark places of Northrend, but all of them are still rather small. It is our duty, our pleasure and our very way of life that demands that we ensure that any and all pockets of these heathens that are discovered are crushed as swiftly and brutally as possible. The Lich King rules this world as its one true ruler and he WILL NOT share it with the false gods of the deeps!_

_~Chapter One of 'Twilight Cultists and why we have to crush their skulls into dust', judged by many Cult of the Damned members as the most left winged book ever written on the subject of Twilight Cultist extermination the Scourge has ever produced.~_

_..._

_Kill them all._

_Kill the cultists. Kill their pet elementals. Kill their fucking ugly Faceless masters. Once they are all dead, burn the bodies. Once the bodies are burnt, have everything in the local area jump up and down on their bones until they are nothing but ashes and dust. Burn the ashes and the dust afterward then scatter what remains to as many different winds as possible. Only then can you move on to the next objective. Only then is the Master's hatred for the Old God puppets you've slaughtered in hatred and cold blood sated. _

_~ 'All you need to know about the Twilight Cult', the shortest and most right winged piece of writing dedicated to the termination of the Twilight Cult in Northrend ever written. According to the Bronze Dragonflight, it is the second shortest such piece of work dedicated to wiping out any other group ever produced. ~_

_..._

**Unnamed Nerubian Ruin / Alliance Deep Ore Sample Mine**

As Naruto slowly made his descent through the mine that had been the cause of so much misery and insanity, he saw things that would have driven him to pants soiling terror and quite possibly insanity had he still been alive and naive. Not everyone had been driven to madness by the Saronite at the same rate as the rest. As his march into the heart of darkness continued, Naruto discovered the gristly fates of those who had failed to be driven to madness by the power of creatures that had once ruled the world fast enough.

The moment that would forever remain with him was about half way through. Prompted up against one of the mine walls was a rather tall, rather expensive looking dinning chair that had what appeared to be a rather beautiful woman dressed in what could only have been rich red silk clothing sitting cross-legged rather comfortably in it at first glance.

As he approached the first thing that hit him (after the sheer strangeness of the situation) was the smell. Once the horrible smell broke through, the rest of the illusion quickly followed. The woman wasn't sitting as comfortably as the first glance might have suggested. Her jaw had been dislocated at some point before her mouth had been sewn shut with clear signs of infection around the stiches. The woman's eyes, dry and heavily bloodshot green, had been sewn open as well forcing Naruto to witness the sheer unspeakable agony that the poor human woman was still currently in as her eyes tried to move to meet his, begging for freedom from her torment.

Noticing that something was wrong with her clothing, Naruto gently reached down and tried to tug at one of her shelves, meeting surprising resistance. Taking a closer look, his eyes widened as he found the silk garment sewn onto the flesh around her wrist. With a fairly strong tug, the infected string broke and the damp shelve lifted, reveling a sight and smell that would have made even the coldest of shinobi lose their lunch.

Everything that had been beneath the silken dress had been skinned, leaving the muscle exposed. In the middle of her wrist was a large, dirty metal nail which had been hammered through the very bone itself, pinning the limb to the chair. The whole limb was tainted by infection, maggots feasting on the meat the whole while. Now knowing what he was looking for, Naruto noticed signs of other such spikes in the woman's feet, shoulders and even through her knees in order to make her sit with them crossed underneath the silken garment.

Meeting the woman's eyes again, Naruto simply felt sad as he placed his hands on the woman's cheeks. "**I'm so sorry you had to go through this.**" was all he said before in a moment of pure compassion he quickly and professionally snapped the woman's neck. While she didn't die right away, as he watched the life fade from her eyes the pain that had been her existence faded with it. The last thing Naruto saw in her eyes before they clouded over completely was a moment of pure bliss after being freed from her torment.

It was not the first mercy killing that Naruto had to perform in that tunnel. It wasn't the last either. It wasn't even the most painful or weird method of torturous death he witnessed in the tunnel by far. But it was the one that he would forever recall whenever he remembered the journey into the deeps of Northrend that day.

He didn't know how long he walked along that tunnel in the darkness, but at the end of the tunnel Naruto saw a weird, purple light. Approaching with caution but unafraid, Naruto stopped just at the entrance of what was a large chamber lit up but at least eight blazers, all of which were lit with purple flames. The walls of the chamber were barren rock, but in the center of the room was a somewhat large makeshift altar that had an idol of... something in the center of it. Just looking at it hurt Naruto's brain, but the very presence of it seemed to fill him with rage.

Looking at the parts of what appeared to be a twisted alter that didn't require him to stare at the idol in the center; Naruto noticed the piles of dead bodies. They were in different stages of decay and some of them were quite fresh, but it was clear that all of them had been killed at the end of some ritual. Just in front of the alter knelt what appeared to be a human being dressed in a strange set of armor. At one time it might have been so golden that just being near a source of light would have given the wearer a golden glow, but it had been tarnished by forces unknown so that instead of a golden color it gave the wearer a tainted purple-yellow aura instead.

As silent as the grave, the kneeling man rose to his feet, a large hammer hanging from his belt. "Naruto, you've come all this way only to stop at the threshold? To quote the ever quoted conversation between a spider and a fly, 'Come into my parlor.' "

Naruto blinked in surprise for a moment at the fact that not only did the man know he was there, but knew him by name as well. Still, he took a few steps out of the entrance tunnel and carefully observed his surroundings while keeping at least one eye on the man by the alter. The lightning may have lit up the place somewhat but what it mostly did was create new, deeper shadows in the room. "**Who are you and just how do you know my name?**"

"Once upon a time I was merely Andrew Jackson, loyal paladin of the Silver Hand and loyal champion of Stormwind City. When I look back on just how naive I had been during such days that happened a lifetime ago, I can't stop myself from laughing but since I still haven't earned my true name yet you can call me by that one. As to how I knew who you are..." Jackson turned in order to face Naruto, letting him see just who he was dealing with. "The master told me you were coming."

Once upon a time Jackson had been considered rather ruggedly handsome and a prize that any woman would have killed to be with. In between the recent lack of sunlight, the poor diet and countless self-inflicted injuries that was clearly no longer the case. Jackson's head was completely covered in scars and scar tissue to the point that trying to work out any of his other features or where one scar ended and another began was an invitation to go completely insane. The only thing other than scars that could be seen was his eyes. Once you looked into them, you knew you were no longer dealing with a human being. This thing was raw insanity driving a human body.

Jackson slowly smiled; a sight which didn't exactly make looking at him any easier. "So the Scourge decided to recruit its newest Death Knight from Konoha of all places? They could have done better, but then again they could have done far worse then you. It's almost a total shame that all their effort has to be ruined by your early death at my hands. Those souls you released before they were ready to be offered to the master were somewhat of a loss, but yours will be a fine replac..."

Cutting off the fallen paladin before he could finish his sentence two small, fast moving objects stuck him right in the forehead and passed through his skull with little trouble. Unceremoniously Jackson fall backward, smacking into the alter as Naruto lowered his hand, the skin around the tips of his index and middle fingers healing over as he did so. "**Well, that was one way to shut you up.**"

Turning to leave, Naruto stopped the moment he heard someone chuckling. "You know it's quite rude to interrupt someone before they are finished speaking." Turning back to the alter, Naruto saw that Jackson was standing again, hammer in hand with two holes in his head. The holes in the man's head were healing before his very eyes. The dark little smirk that was smeared over face his face made Naruto hate the man even more. "Did you honestly believe that was going to work?"

"**You know for a few moments there yeah, I kind of did.**" Naruto answered truthfully, drawing his own oversized weapon in preparation for what was about to come.

"Well, since it is clear that we're both here for the same reason I guess we can skip the pre-battle banter. Now then Naruto..." It took all of Naruto's experience as a Shinobi to move to the side as Jackson seemed to move in a blur of purple light. Where he had been standing, Jackson brought his hammer down, breaking much of the floor around where the strike had landed while Jackson himself gazed at him with murder in his eyes "COME HERE!"

...

**The wreckage of Ami's home, Elemental Countries**

It hadn't taken Hinata much to get a mission without a clear outcome that headed north set up for her. All she had needed to tell the Hokage was that she had a lead on the whereabouts of Naruto and that she didn't trust anyone else to check it out. The fact that this lead was strong enough to pull Hinata from the downward spiral she had been suffering for weeks only made getting the mission easier.

While she didn't know how much of Ami's story was factual or not, Hinata wasn't about to let this chance to make up at least some of her failures when it came to Naruto slip by without checking it out first. If it turned out that Ami was lying to her... if she still had the strength in her when she returned to Konoha she would beat the lying bitch to death.

Doing such a thing would have been impossible to imagine a year ago but with Naruto gone the world had become a dark, painful place and the sheer agony that getting her hopes up that she could not only find him but speak to him for a couple of minutes only to have them dashed...

Removing the loose stone in the cellar of the darkness covered ruin of what had once been a house that Ami had told her about, Hinata's eyes landed on the plain brown leather cover of the book she had been told would be there. Throwing caution to the wind, she reached in and removed it, opening it and scanning what few pages remained. It was easy to tell why Ami wouldn't wish to be discovered carrying such a book even if it seemed to lack the information that caused so much destruction and death over the Land of Fire's north. No doubt some of the missing pages did.

Rereading the page that held the ritual she wanted, Hinata considered what she would do with this information. It was quite possible that Ami was connected to whoever had caused the outbreak of the undead. By right she should go to the Hokage and report such a fact. But if this ritual didn't work then clearly it was a fake book and all Ami had seen when she claimed to have seen her sister was just a delusion of what she wanted to see with all her heart. But if it did work, she would see Naruto again...

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it." Without another word, Hinata closed the book and vanished into the darkness of the night. She had to prepare.

...

**Unnamed Nerubian Ruin / Alliance Deep Ore Sample Mine**

Throwing his body to the side like a rag doll, Naruto managed to avoid the searing blast of light that would have seared flesh from bone, only to feel a metal boot slam into his ribs as his disparate dodge left just enough of an opening for such an attack to connect. Flying further then he had planned and skidding in order to avoid falling into one of the openings of colored flame, Naruto's eyes widened as he _barely_ managed to step to the side and avoid one of his feet from being the last thing to go through his head as a large hammer descended past his hand and landed with a heavy thud on the side of the metal beacon, sending the purple flame that was happily burning within flying into the face of the being who had provoked it.

Naruto had expected a the man to start screaming in pain as the flames burned him, to start swatting at them in an attempt to put them out or just show some sign at all that the flame was hurting the man in the slightest damn it! But there was nothing. As the man turned to gaze at Naruto, the former shinobi of the hidden Leaf felt a very human chill go down his spine. While the former paladin hadn't made any movement or shown any hint that the flames were painful in the slightest, that didn't mean they weren't having any effect at all.

What skin, muscle and fat that had been left in the paladin's jaw and cheek area had already melted and dripped away, leaving behind a smile that was larger and creepier then any such grin had a right to be. As the flames consumed what was left of his head, the mad man's eyes refused to leave Naruto's own. The hatred and insanity that had been buried deep within their depths had been fused together in what could only be called utter zealotry bore holes into his very soul as the servant of the Old Gods eyes vanished behind a rolling wave of purple flame, melted skin, fat and muscle tissue. Within a matter of seconds, the…mass mixed together into a purple mess that consumed both fire and face with equal abandon before it slowly began to settle in a new, fleshy form.

There really wasn't many words that could be used to describe what he was seeing now and if pressed Naruto would freely admit that he was pretty certain he had made up at least a few of them on the spot in order to give himself something to work with. 'Sickeningly purple fleshy...thing with a trunk that hates you' was the official, censored way he would describe it to others. While it was a truly basic description of the creature that had only minutes ago been a Paladin who was completely batshit insane, it was honestly all that was there. It was purple and fleshly looking while being rather sickening to look at (skin crawling was not something to watch happen on a full stomach… or at all if it can be avoided) and where the fixed smile had once been was now a sort of trunk while a strange killing intent poured off of it.

And that somehow made the whole thing worse to Naruto. While the freak that had once been Andrew Jackson had truly been a soulless monster by the end it was at least possible to tell that he had at least once been a perfectly normal human who had lost his mind and soul to insanity. This thing was just too… alien.

It didn't show the same madness that had been present mere moments ago and other then the sheer, weird hatred that was just gushing from the foul thing like blood from an infected wound it seemed to lack any and all possible emotion. When the creature, a human hand still gripping the hammer that had tried to flatten Naruto before spoke, the death knight with bone colored spikey hair didn't understand the words themselves but their meanings drilled into his mind through his teeth painfully.

'_**YoU wILl Be A fInE fEaSt Of LoSt SoUlS, pUpPeT oF fAtE**__**.**__**'**_

Gritting his teeth in order to drown at the pain and his growing fury, Naruto brought his sword to bare, his eyes narrowing into cat like slits as he glared at the faceless abomination of nature that was now his sworn enemy. "**I've never believed in fate and I don't plan to start now you ugly motherfucker!**" He roared in hate filled defiance.

For a brief moment, Naruto wondered _why_ he was so anger… so driven to perform his duty as an agent of the Scourge to wipe the creature in front of him off the face of the planet. In the end however he cast such queries aside when he came to the conclusion that it didn't truly matter why he hated it so much, this creature just needed to die.

'_**YoUr FaLsE bRaVaDo WiLl NoT sAvE yOu, PaWn Of KoNoHa**__**.**__**'**_

No more words were exchanged as both Death Knight and Faceless one charged the other with full intent of making their world a better place by wiping the other son of a bitch from the face of it.

…..

**Eastern Headquarters, Location Unknown**

"_Sir, I don't mean to bother you but I've noticed that Lord Orochimaru's pet Uchiha isn't packing his stuff for the move. Is he staying behind?"_

As Kabuto walked calmly through a poorly lit corridor that would have seemed like any of the other hundred or so such corridors designed to look the same to those who weren't meant to be here with Orochimaru's latest bottle of painkillers placed carefully on the tray he was carrying next to a filling if somewhat basic and bland meal, the snake sannin's second in command pondered the last coherent words of the latest spy in their ranks to be exposed by the wide scale move.

It was frighteningly easy to spot them due to the fact they were trying so hard to uncover just what Orochimaru's latest wide scale project truly was. There had also been a number of changes in the leadership of several bases, projects and security details where his lordship deemed that weakness, corruption or treason had led to far too many spies infiltrating their ranks.

Kabuto sighed a little to himself as he continued at his standard pace. The snake sannin had been quite busy organizing the movement of his forces despite his steadily failing health and disliked having to stop every now and then for such things as mealtimes and his medication. Even the best of positions had their downsides and Kabuto had long ago accepted that all things considered dealing with a boss who was a workaholic wasn't all that bad. However even he had to admit that he was interested in learning just what Orochimaru's true goal was.

The snake sannin was keeping the details of this latest scheme as close to his chest as possible, keeping everything on a need to know basis with the threat of painful, agonizing death hanging over those who sort to learn more than they needed to. Each different cell was given a very specific task to carry out that they were to keep secret to everyone else, each project leader overseeing the cells only knowing what those cells under them knew… even the base leaders who were in control of countless taskforces only held one piece of the puzzle.

Because of his position as second in command, Kabuto prided himself on being in a position that allowed him to get a much grander view of events in motion. He was able to connect most of the different puzzle pieces and even had a view corners already set up. However critical parts of the puzzle were still missing and he wasn't allowed to look at the box for guidance. Not yet anyway.

The sound of a pain filled scream up ahead broke Kabuto from his thoughts. Considering his workplace and quite often the nature of the work carried out within its stone walls hearing the odd scream of utter mind destroying anguish was merely the sign that someone was doing their job correctly under normal circumstances; Which made this scream even stranger due to the fact that all such projects had either been put on hold or terminated due to the move…

Picking up his pace Kabuto started to head towards the source of the sound. It wasn't too much of a bother for him… he had already been heading where he suspected the noise came from.

….

**Unnamed Nerubian Ruin / Alliance Deep Ore Sample Mine**

Slamming his sword into the ground with his right hand in order to stop his trip backwards while keeping him on his feet, Naruto breathed heavily as his left arm hung uselessly like the dead weight it currently was. The fast paced, highly deadly melee that had so far been the engagement with the… thing he was battling to a more permanent death had taken its toll with a number of small lashes that were healing at a slightly slower pace than he would have liked and a dislocated left shoulder, causing the rest of the limb to hang uselessly.

Naruto would have liked to say he was giving as good as he got, but that was open to debate. While it was true that he had landed a number of blows and strikes that would have either crippled or outright killed a living enemy of flesh and blood the faceless freak didn't even seem to notice such minor injuries to where Naruto had guessed its lungs, heart and other normally vital organs should have been. At an earlier stage he had managed to hack off the creature's still human looking right arm only to have it grow about three purple tentacles like things in its place.

He was in trouble. Naruto could admit that to himself. Despite his heavy breathing he wasn't tired; he had been doing it more out of a trained reflex his body had picked up over the many years of being alive but he was down an arm, limiting his abilities greatly since he couldn't use jutsu with the one hand that was holding onto his sword. Come to think of it, he couldn't use most of his magic either for the exact same reason. Given enough of an opening he would have been able to pop his shoulder back into place and regain the use of his left arm but with the narrowing of his unblinking glare at his opposition it didn't that a rocket scientist to work out that he wasn't going to get such an opening easily.

It was just staring at him with its freakish, blank and uncaring gaze. The thing didn't even make a stance like it was prepared for combat; it was just standing there whilst a strangely colored liquid that Naruto was assuming was the creature's blood oozed slowly out of the wounds he had inflicted earlier, not even caring that it had been hurt in any regard. That cold, cruel indifference to everything around it… Naruto _loathed_ it. He despised it so much that it honestly scared him how quickly it could get under his skin with such little effort on its part.

The only warning that Naruto had that the small interlude was over was the slightest twitch of the former paladin's left knee. Feeling it coming more than being able to see it coming, Naruto ducked his head to avoid a clothesline that would have beheaded him had it connected. Learning from past mistake, an armored fist was already punching right were…

**Crunch!**

The noise and feel of human bone shattering under his strike had never felt as good to Naruto as it did in that moment. Foreseeing a counter attack, the death knight rolled to the aside and avoided a blow that could have easily embedded an armored human body into a layer of rock and dirt. In that moment Naruto finally saw his opening. The broken leg had caused the faceless prophet to shift far too much weight behind the strike without having the steady foundation to keep it from stumbling forwards. It was a quickly closing window of opportunity; Even as he watched Naruto could see the purple/bluish gunk that made up the creatures flesh and blood pump into the former human's legs, quickly trying to remove the flaw in its current design.

Spinning the overly large blade in his hand so that Naruto had a reverse grip on the handle the death knight performed a shift strike at knee height, severing the purplish legs from the rest of the former paladin's body at the knees in a spray on purple goo and a loud bellow of frustration as the faceless one crushed onto the ground. That caused Naruto to feel yet another spike of anger; the damn thing couldn't even feel pain or fear properly. How are you meant to enjoy kicking ass when the ass you are kicking doesn't seem to understand it is being kicked?!

Jumping back to a relatively safe distance before sticking his overly large blade into the rock that made up the ground with surprisingly little difficulty, Naruto took a deep breath out of reflex before grabbing his limp arm and forcefully pushing it back into place. The popping of bone returning to its rightful place in the world was rather painful, but the former shinobi had gone through worse injuries in life and death went a long way to mute the pain. It was like hearing sound while under water now; Distant, distorted and somewhat alien.

Sparing but a moment in order to wiggle the fingers of his recently repaired arm in order to ensure that everything was at least working at a satisfactory level, Naruto seized his blade again and pulled it out of the rock before turning his attention back to his fallen foe. Purple gunk still oozed from the stubs that had once been legs, but it was clear that it was slowly but steady replacing what had been lost. Naruto wasn't planning on giving it the time to do so.

Using chakra to further empower his legs, Naruto leaped towards the nearest wall in order to spring board himself high into the air of the chamber. Channeling wind chakra through the blade, the undead shinobi hurled his giant, now wind chakra enforced sword down towards his currently still legless prey. The faceless one tried to raise on of its arms to deflect or at least shield it from the attack, only to have the sword pass through the limb, severing it completely around where most humanoids had their forearms before passing through the unliving creature's torso, impaling it as the sword carried on till about all that was sticking out was the hilt.

Still making his own trip downwards, Naruto channeled his chakra into the palm of his right hand, forcing it into a familiar blue whirling orb of death as he pulled his arm back, ready to thrust it into the target he was fast approaching; the faceless one's head.

"**RASENGAN!"** He roared as he finally drove his arm forwards to spear his target.

…..

**Elsewhere~**

Kabuto didn't drop his tray as he saw the wreckage that had once been his master's doorway. That would have implied that he was A) worried about Orochimaru's welfare and B) been surprised by this turn of events. Instead, he rather calmly and professionally put the tray down before approaching the now open doorway with the upmost caution, weapons already close at hand.

Someone stepped through the door.

Kabuto hesitated. While he knew that Orochimaru was one of the greatest shinobi alive, he had seen what Sasuke could do and he had no trouble admitting that under the snake master training program Sasuke was on par if not greater than Orochimaru had been in his prime. It was the kind of fight that only a fool would bet money on the outcome of.

"Who…" Kabuto asked without asking, his eyes looking into the one remaining eye of Sasuke Uchiha for his answer.

….

Something was wrong.

Normally when he hit something with Rasengan, the target tended to either get blow away really injured or tried to stand their ground and get a hole drilled through them. Naruto felt a creeping sense of dread settle in the pit of his stomach as not only _wasn't _his rasengan turning this faceless freak's head into a pile of red and purple paste, but it was starting to chuckle in a spine tingling way as it started to _push his rasengan back by raising its head off the ground!_

_**I mAy HaVe OvErEsTiMaTeD tHe StReNgTh Of My UnFiNiShEd BoDy BuT yOu WiLl DiE hErE uNrEmEmBeReD aNd AlOnE bY mY hAnD, pUpPeT oF fAte.**_

Even as the pain from the latest words lingered in his mind like nails in a plank of wood, Naruto knew in his core this thing was right. He wasn't strong enough to win this fight. It was only a matter of time until the damn purple ooze rebuilt enough of this things body so that it could fight at its fullest again and every second another weakness of the human it had used as a base would disappear. Why bother fighting against something when you knew what the outcome was?

_No._

Something snapped in Naruto's head. The prior despair that had been clouding his thoughts ignited in a burning funeral pyre of anger, hatred and loathing so strong that his body began to physically shake. He was angry at the very idea that fate would _dare _to try and interfere in his affairs, let alone try to decide the outcome of _his _fight with anyone!

His back started to burn but all that did was fuel the fire further. He felt complete and utter hated for the _thing _before him on a physical, mental and spiritual level and at its _refusal_ to just roll over and die only furthered his desire to hunt down and exterminate it and all of its kind!

Unnoticed black lines started to slide across skin not covered by his armor, the burning sensation following were they went. Naruto didn't notice them nor would he have cared at the moment. The burning was filling him with fresh, utterly raw power and he wasn't about to question were it was coming from while it was helping him with his goal.

The fact that there had been a moment that weakness had gripped his mind at all… Naruto _loathed _the fact that it happened and as his hatred and anger burned it away he swore to himself to never let such a filthy rot as despair take root in his heart or mind ever again!

The light blue of his Rasengan started to slowly but increasingly darken, growing darker and darker as more of the raw power he was channeling was pushed into it causing it to become denser. The faceless one's earlier successes in pushing its head off the ground started to reverse as the color changed; slowly driving it back into the rock it had started out on. Unable to physically go any further once the things head had reached the ground, the now black swirling orb of chakra finally started to drill through wait lay in-between it and the stone floor slowly.

Purple ooze, blue ooze and the odd streak of red blood sprayed in a sprinkler of gore as the as yet unnamed Rasengan drilled further and further through the faceless one's skull, it's wielder completely ignoring what weak attempts at struggling his victim was making. The only thing that would have made it better for Naruto was if it was screaming, but alas one cannot have everything.

After who knows how long, Naruto's Rasengan was drilling into the floor. It was easy to tell because it was making quicker work of it then what it had been forcing itself through prior. The faceless one had stopped struggling, its head little more than a series of different colored stains sprayed all over the room. Some would have claimed it was dead but could something that didn't have a life to begin with have it taken from them?

His grim but very satisfying job done, Naruto stopped feeding the Rasengan chakra and let it blow itself out. Taking a series of deep breaths to collect himself a little, the burning sensation faded away as the lines he had failed to notice started to withdraw to a location somewhere on his back. With the raw power it had granted him vanishing, Naruto felt… spent. After having some much power flowing in him, anything less just made him feel drained.

Waiting a little for the bulk of the feeling to pass, Naruto forced himself onto shaky legs before reaching for the hilt of his sword. It took a solid effort and a least a couple of minutes to pull it out of both the ground and the corpse of the dead freak, but once it was free its wielder felt better for having it again.

Taking one last deep breath, Naruto turned from the scene and started to make his way out of this place of insanity and false gods. Maybe if he was lucky the fighting up above would still be going on. He really felt the need to cleave something in half right now.

**A.N: **

**And here it is! **

**I am sorry this has taken so long, but between real life and just how hard it was to write this chapter in such a way that I was happy with it… I hope it was worth the wait. **

**The Faceless One was the thing that gave me the most trouble. Faceless Ones are generally not push overs since even the Scourge war machine has trouble dealing with them. Many will recall the Faceless one that was imprisoned in the Scourge's mines in Icecrown; I suspect they only imprisoned it because the Scourge present in the area lacked the means to actually kill the damn thing. **

**Just so we are all on the same page as to how I view Faceless Ones: I consider them the Old God's version of a titan golem made from flesh, the Old God's own power and whatever metals and stone are in the area they are making it. This would explain just why the Faceless in Northrend are generally stronger than the Faceless found in most parts of the Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor. **

**An example of this is the Faceless in the Old Kingdom and the one on the Lost Isle (Those with goblins know what I'm speaking of). The Faceless One in the Lost Isle no doubt has the strongest metal and stone in the area in his body to help make them stronger, but the strongest metal in the area is copper (Maybe Tin. I doubt the Old Gods would care enough to smelt bronze) and thus can be taken down by a single goblin. The ones in the Old Kingdom however are infused with Saronite (As confirmed by Blizzard) and thus require a team of powerful heroes working together just to overcome one at a time. ** **Distance from the Old God who created them and the general corruption of a place are also factors.**

**Anyway, I plan to go through old chapters and give them a bit of a clean-up in the coming week.**

**Reviews are highly welcome and I love you all for it.**

**Kiue Jin. **


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